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1 







THROUGH 

THE LOOKING-GLASS 

AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE 


LEWIS CAEROLL ^ 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLORS 




NEW YORK 

GILBERT II. McKIBBIN 

MDCCCXCIX 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED, 

tibrary of Ccngressj 

Office of the 

JAM 27 1900 

BegUter of CopyrtghtSk 


51955 


Copyright, 1899, 
By G. H. McKIBBIN 



SeCOtSiD COPY, 

O 

JVtrvs .va'-aa . 


Printed by the Manhattan Press, 
4'J4 JV. Broadway, New York 


mTRODUCTION. 


Child of the pure unclouded brow 
And dreaming eyes of wonder! 

Though time be fleet, and I and thou 
Are half a life asunder, 

Thy loving smile will surely hail 
The love-gift of a fairy-tale. 

I have not seen thy sunny face. 

Nor heard thy silver laughter; 

No thought of me shall find a place 
In thy young life’s hereafter^ — 

Enough that now thou wilt not fail 
To listen to my fairy-tale. 

A tale begun in other days. 

When summer suns were glowing — 

A simple chime, that served to time 
The rhythm of our rowing — 

Whose echoes live in memory yet. 

Though envious years would say “forget.” 

Come, hearken then, ere voice of dread, 
With bitter tidings laden. 


8 


INTRODUCTION. 


Shall summon to unwelcome bed 
A melancholy maiden! 

We are but older children, dear, 

Who fret to find our bedtime near. 

Without, the frost, the blinding snow. 
The storm- wind’s moody madness — • 
Within, the firelight’s ruddy glow 
And childhood’s nest of gladness. 
The magic words shall hold thee fast : 
Thou shalt not heed the raving blast. 

And though the shadow of a sigh 
May tremble through the story. 

For “ happy summer days ” gone by, 
And vanish’d summer glory — 

It shall not touch with breath of bale, 
The pleasance of our fairy-tale. 



THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 

CHAPTER I. 

LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE. 

One thing was certain, that the white kitten had 
had nothing to do with it : — it was the black kitten’s 
fault entirely. For the white kitten had been hav- 
ing its face washed by the old cat for the last quarter 
of an hour (and bearing it pretty well, considering) ; 
so you see that it couldn’t have had any hand in 
the mischief. 


10 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


The way Dinah washed her children’s faces w’as 
this: first she held the poor thing down by its ear 
with one paw, and then with the other paw she 
rubbed its face all over, the wrong wa}^ beginning 
at the nose: and just now, as I said, she was hard 
at work on the white kitten, which was lying quite 
still and trying to purr — no doubt feeling that it 
was all meant for its good. 

But the black kitten had been finished with 
earlier in the afternoon, and so, while Alice was 
sitting curled up in a corner of the great arm-chair, 
half talking to herself and half asleep, the kitten 
had been having a grand game of romps with the 
ball of worsted Alice had been trying to wind up, 
and had been rolling it up and down till it had all 
come undone again, and there it was, spread over 
the hearth-rug, all knots and tangles, with the 
kitten running after its own tail in the middle. 

“ Oh, you wicked, wicked little thing ! ” cried 
Alice, catching up the kitten and giving it a little 
kiss to make it understand that it was in disgrace. 
“Eeally, Dinah ought to have taught you better 
manners! You ought, Dinah, you know you 
ought!” she added, looking reproachfully at the 
old cat, and speaking in as cross a voice as she 
could manage — and then she scrambled back into 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 11 


the arm-chair, taking the kitten and the worsted 
with her, and began winding up the ball again. 
But she didn’t get on very fast, as she was talking 
all the time, sometimes to the kitten, and some- 
times to herself. Kitty sat very demurely on her 
knee, pretending to watch the progress of the wind- 
ing, and now and then putting out one paw and 
gently touching the ball, as if it would he glad to 
help if it might. 

‘‘Do you know what to-morrow is, Kitty?” Alice 
began. “You’d have guessed if you’d been up in 
the window with me — only Dinah was making you 
tidy, so you couldn’t. I was watching the boys 
getting in sticks for the bonfire — and it wants 
plenty of sticks, Kitty ! Only it got so cold, and it 
snowed so, they had to leave off. Never mind, 
Kitty, we’ll go and see the bonfire to-morrow.” 
Here Alice wound two or three turns of the worsted 
round the kitten’s neck, just to see how it would 
look : this led to a scramble, in which the hall rolled 
down upon the floor, and yards and yards of it got 
unwound again. 

“Do you know, I was so angry, Kitty,” Alice 
went on, as soon as they were comfortably settled 
again, “when I saw all the mischief you had been 
doing, I was very nearly opening the window and 


12 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


putting you out into the snow! And you’d have 
deserved it, you little mischievous darling 1 What 
have you got to say for yourself? Now don’t inter- 
rupt me 1 ” she went on, holding up one finger. 
“I’m going to tell you all your faults. Number 
one: you squeaked twice while Dinah was washing 
your face this morning. Now you can’t deny it, 
Kitty: I heard you! What’s that you say?” (pre- 
tending that the kitten was speaking). “Her paw 
went into your eye? Well, that’s your fault, for 
keeping your eyes open — if you’d shut them tight 
up, it wouldn’t have happened. Now don’t make 
any more excuses, but listen! Number two: you 
pulled Snowdrop away by the tail just as I had put 
down the saucer of milk before her! What, you 
were thirsty, were you? How do you know she 
wasn’t thirsty too? Now for number three: you 
unwound every bit of the worsted while I wasn’t 
looking ! 

“That’s three faults, Kitty, and you’ve not been 
punished for any of them yet. You know I’m sav- 
ing up all your punishments for Wednesday week. 
Suppose they had saved up all my punishments!” 
she went on, talking more to herself than the 
kitten. “ What would they do at the end of a year? 
I should be sent to prison, I suppose, when the day 




14 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


came. Or — let me see — suppose each punishment 
was to be going without a dinner: then when the 
miserable day came, I should have to go without 
fifty dinners at once! Well, I shouldn’t mind that 
much ! I’d far rather go without them than eat 
them 1 

“ Do you hear the snow against the window- 
panes, Kitty? How nice and soft it sounds! Just 
as if some one was kissing the window all over out- 
side. I wonder if the snow loves the trees and 
fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it 
covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; 
and perhaps it says, ‘ Go to sleep, darlings, till the 
summer comes again. ’ And when they wake up in 
the summer, Kitty, they dress themselves all in 
green, and dance about — whenever the wind blows 
— oh, that’s very pretty ! ” cried Alice, dropping the 
ball of worsted to clap her hands. “And I do so 
wish it was true ! I’m sure the woods look sleepy 
in the autumn, when the leaves are getting brown. 

“Kitty, can you play chess? Now, don’t smile, 
my dear. I’m asking it seriously. Because, when 
we were playing just now, you watched just as if 
you understood it: and when I said ‘ Check! ’ you 
purred! Well, it was a nice check, Kitty, and 
really, I might have won, if it hadn’t been for that 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


15 


nasty Knight, that came wriggling down among 

my pieces. Kitty, dear, let’s pretend ” And 

here I wish I could tell you half the things Alice 
used to say, beginning with her favorite phrase 
“Let’s pretend.” She had had quite a long argu- 
ment with her sister only the day before — all be- 
cause Alice had begun with “Let’s pretend we’re 
kings and queens; ” and her sister, who liked being 
very exact, had argued that they couldn’t, because 
there were only two of them, and Alice had been 
reduced at last to say, “ Well, you can be one of 
them then, and I’ll be all the rest.” And once she 
had really frightened her old nurse by shouting sud- 
denly in her ear: “Nurse! Do let’s pretend that 
I’m a hungry hyaena, and you’re a bone.” 

But this is taking us away from Alice’s speech to 
the kitten. “Let’s pretend that you’re the Bed 
Queen, Kitty ! Do you know, I think if you sat up 
and folded your arms, you’d look exactly like her. 
Now do try, there’s a dear!” And Alice got the 
Red Queen off the table, and set it up before the 
kitten as a model for it to imitate: however, the 
thing didn’t succeed, principally, Alice said, because 
the kitten wouldn’t fold its arms properly. So, to 
punish it, she held it up to the Looking-glass that 
it might see how sulky it was — “and if you’re not 


16 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


good directly,” she added, “I’ll put you through 
into Looking-glass House. How would you like 
that? 

“Now, if you’ll only attend, Kitty, and not talk 
so much. I’ll tell you all my ideas about Looking- 
glass House. First, there’s the room you can see 
through the glass — that’s just the same as our 
drawing-room, only the things go the other way. 
I can see all of it when I get upon a chair — all but 
the bit just behind the fireplace. Oh ! Ido so wish 
I could see that bit! I want so much to know 
whether they’ve a fire in the winter: you never can 
tell, you know, unless our fire smokes, and then 
smoke comes up in that room too — but that may be 
only pretence, just to make it look as if they had a 
fire. Well, then, the books are something like our 
books, only the words go the wrong way; I know 
that, because I’ve held up one of our books to the 
glass, and then they hold up one in the other room. 

“How would you like to live in Looking-glass 
House, Kitty? I wonder if they’d give you milk 
in there? Perhaps Looking-glass milk isn’t good 
to drink — But oh, Kitty! now we come to the pas- 
sage. You can just see a little peep of the passage 
in Looking-glass House, if you leave the door of our 
drawing-room wide open: and it’s very like our 




18 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


passage as far as you can see, only you know it 
may be quite different on beyond. Oh, Kitty ! bow 
nice it would be if we could only get through into 
Looking-glass House! I’m sure it’s got, oh! such 
beautiful things in it! Let’s pretend there’s a way 
of getting through into it, somehow, Kitty. Let’s 
pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that 
we can get through. Why, it’s turning into a sort 
of mist now, I declare! It’ll be easy enough to get 

through ” She was up on the chimney-piece 

while she said this, though she hardly knew how 
she had got there. And certainly the glass was 
beginning to melt away, just like a bright silvery 
mist. 

In another moment Alice was through the glass, 
and had jumped lightly down into the Looking- 
glass room. The very first thing she did was to 
look whether there was a fire in the fireplace, and 
she was quite pleased to find that there was a real 
one, blazing away as brightly as the one she had 
left behind. ‘‘So I shall be as warm here as I was 
in the old room,” thought Alice: “warmer, in fact, 
because there’ll be no one here to scold me away 
from the fire. Oh, what fun it’ll be, when they see 
me through the glass in here, and can’t get at me ! ” 

Then she began looking about, and noticed that 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 19 


what could be seen from the old room was quite 
common and uninteresting, but that all the rest was 
as different as possible. For instance, the pictures 
on the wall next the fire seemed to be all alive, and 
the very clock on the chimney-piece (you know you 
can only see the back of it in the Looking-glass) 
had got the face of a little old man, and grinned at 
her. 

“They don’t keep this room so tidy as the other,” 
Alice thought to herself, as she noticed several of 
the chessmen down in the hearth among the cin- 
ders: but in another moment, with a little “Oh!” 
of surprise, she was down on her hands and knees 
watching them. The chessmen were walking about 
two and two ! 

“Here are the Eed King and the Eed Queen,” 
Alice said (in a whisper, for fear of frightening 
them), “and there are the White King and the 
White Queen sitting on the edge of the shovel — and 
here are two Castles walking arm in arm — I don’t 
think they can hear me,” she went on as she put 
her head closer down, “and I’m nearly sure they 
can’t see me. I feel somehow as if I were in- 
visible ” 

Here something began squeaking on the table 
behind Alice, and made her turn her head just in 


20 THBOUGH THE LOOKIEG-GLASS. 


time to see one of the White Pawns roll over and 
begin kicking : she watched it with great curiosity 
to see what would happen next. 

“It is the voice of my child!” the White Queen 
cried out, as she rushed past the King, so violently 
that she knocked him over among the cinders. 
“My precious Lily ! My imperial kitten 1 ” and she 
began scrambling wildly up the side of the fender. 

“Imperial fiddlestick!” said the King, rubbing 
his nose, which had been hurt by the fall. He had 
a right to be a little annoyed with the Queen, for 
he was covered with ashes from head to foot. 

Alice was very anxious to be of use, and, as the 
poor little Lily was nearly screaming herself into a 
fit, she hastily picked up the Queen and set her on 
the table by the side of her noisy little daughter. 

The Queen gasped, and sat down: the rapid 
journey through the air had quite taken away her 
breath, and for a minute or two she could do noth- 
ing but hug the little Lily in silence. As soon as 
she had recovered her breath a little, she called out 
to the White King, who was sitting sulkily among 
the ashes, “ Mind the volcano ! ” 

“ What volcano? ” said the King, looking up 
anxiously into the fire, as if he thought that was 
the most likely place to find one. 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 21 


“Blew — me — up,” panted the Queen, who was 
still a little out of breath. “Mind you come up — 
the regular way — don’t get blown up! ” 



Alice watched the White King as he slowly 
struggled up from bar to bar, till at last she said: 
“Why, you’ll be hours and hours getting to the 


22 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


table, at that rate. I’d far better help 3 ^ou, hadn’t 
I?” But the King took no notice of the question: 
it was quite clear that he could neither hear her nor 
see her. 

So Alice picked him up very gently, and lifted 
him across more slowly than she had lifted the 
Queen, that she mightn’t take his breath away: 
but, before she put him on the table, she thought 
she might as well dust him a little, he was so cov- 
ered with ashes. 

She said afterwards that she had never seen in all 
her life such a face as the King made, when he 
found himself held in the air by an invisible hand, 
and being dusted : he was far too much astonished 
to cry out, but his eyes and his mouth went on get- ^ 
ting larger and larger, and rounder and rounder, 
till her hand shook so with laughing that she nearly 
let him drop upon the floor. 

‘‘Oh! please don’t make such faces, my dear!” 
she cried out, quite forgetting that the King 
couldn’t hear her. “ You make me laugh so that 
I can hardly hold you ! And don’t keep your mouth 
so wide open ! All the ashes will get into it — there, 
now I think you’re tidy enough!” she added, as 
she smoothed his hair, and set him upon the table 
near the Queen. 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 23 


The King immediately fell flat on his back, and 
lay perfectly still: and Alice was a little alarmed 
at what she had done, and went round the room to 
see if she could find any water to throw over him. 
However, she could find nothing but a bottle of ink, 
and when she got back with it she found he had 
recovered, and he and the Queen were talking to- 
gether in a frightened whisper — so low, that Alice 
could hardly hear what they said. 

The King was saying, assure you, my dear, I 
turned cold to the very ends of my whiskers!” 

To which the Queen replied: ‘‘You haven’t got 
any whiskers.” 

“The horror of that moment,” the King went on, 
“ I shall never, never forget ! ” 

“You will though,” the Queen said, “if you don’t 
make a memorandum of it.” 

Alice looked on with great interest as the King 
took an enormous memorandum-book out of his 
pocket, and began writing. A sudden thought 
struck her, and she took hold of the end of the 
pencil, which came some way over his shoulder, and 
began writing for him. 

The poor King looked puzzled and unhappy, and 
struggled with the pencil for some time without 
saying anything ; but Alice was too strong for him, 


24 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


and at last he panted out: ‘‘My dear! I really must 
get a thinner pencil. I can’t manage this one a 
bit; it writes all manner of things that I don’t 
intend ” 

“ What manner of things? ” said the Queen, look- 
ing over the book (in which Alice had put “The 
White Knight is sliding down the poker. He bal- 
ances very badly”). “That’s not a memorandum 
of your feelings 1 ” 

There was a book lying near Alice on the table, 
and while she sat watching the White King (for 
she was still a little anxious about him, and had the 
ink all ready to throw over him, in case he fainted 
again) , she turned over the leaves to find some part 
that she could read, “ — for it’s all in some language 
I don’t know,” she said to herself. 

It was like this ; 

XwW 

mm b4\k 

She puzzled over this for some time, but at last a 
bright thought struck her. “ Why, it’s a Looking- 


THEOUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


25 


glass book, of course! And if I hold it up to a 
glass, the words will all go the right way again.” 
This was the poem that Alice read : 

JABBERWOCKY. 

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves 
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; 



All mimsy were the borogoves, 
And the mome raths outgrabe. 


26 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


“Beware the Jabberwock, my son! 

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! 
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun 
The frumious Bandersnatch ! 

He took his vorpal sword in hand : 

Long time the manxome foe he sought — 

So rested he by the Tumtum tree. 

And stood a while in thought. 

And as in uffish thought he stood. 

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame. 

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood. 

And burbled as it came ! 

One, two! One, two! And through and through 
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack ! 

He left it dead, and with its head 
He went galumphing back. 

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? 

Come to my arms, my beamish boy ! 

0 frabjous day ! Callooh! Callay!” 

He chortled in his joy. 

^Twas brillig, and the slithy toves 
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe ; 

All mimsy were the borogoves. 

And the mome raths outgrabe. 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 27 


‘‘It seems very pretty,” she said when she had 
linished it, “but it’s rather hard to understand!” 
(You see she didn’t like to confess, even to herself, 
that she couldn’t make it out at all.) “Somehow 
it seems to fill my head with ideas — only I don’t 
exactly know what they are! However, somebody 

killed something: that’s clear, at any rate ” 

“But oh! ” thought Alice, suddenly jumping up, 
“if I don’t make haste I shall have to go back 
through the Looking-glass, before I’ve seen what 
the rest of the house is like ! Let’s have a look at 
the garden first!” She was out of the room in a 
moment, and ran down-stairs — or, at least, it wasn’t 
exactly running, but a new invention for getting 
down-stairs quickly and easily, as Alice said to her- 
self. She just kept the tips of her fingers on the 
hand-rail, and floated gently down without even 
touching the stairs with her feet ; then she floated 
on through the hall, and would have gone straight 
out at the door in the same way, if she hadn’t 
caught hold of the door-post. She was getting a 
little giddy too with so much floating in the air, and 
was rather glad to find herself walking again in the 
natural way. 


28 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


CHAPTER II. 

THE GARDEN OF LIVE FLOWERS. 

“I SHOULD see the garden far better,” said Alice 
to herself, “if I could get to the top of that hill: 
and here’s a path that leads straight to it — at least, 
no it doesn’t do that — ” (after going a few yards 
along the path, and turning several sharp corners), 
“ but I suppose it will at last. But how curiously 
it twists! It’s more like a corkscrew than a path! 
Well, this turn goes to the hill, I suppose — no, it 
doesn’t! This goes straight back to the house! 
Well then, I’ll try it the other way.” 

And so she did: wandering up and down, and 
trying turn after turn, but always coming back to 
the house, do what she would. Indeed, once, when 
she turned a corner rather more quickly than usual, 
she ran against it before she could stop herself. 

“It’s no use talking about it,” Alice said, looking 
up at the house and pretending it was arguing with 
her. “I’m not going in again yet. I know I 
should have to get through the Looking glass again 
— back into the old room — and there would be an 
end of all my adventures! ” 





30 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


So, resolutely turning her back upon the house, 
she set out once more down the path, determined to 
keep straight on till she got to the hill. For a few 
minutes all went on well, aud she was just saying, 

I really shall do it this time ” when the path 

gave a sudden twist and shook itself (as she de- 
scribed it afterwards), and the next moment she 
found herself actually walking in at the door. 

“ Oh, it’s too bad ! ” she cried. “ I never saw such 
a house for getting in the way ! Never ! ” 

However, there was the hill full in sight, so there 
was nothing to be done but start again. This 
time she came upon a large flower-bed, with a 
border of daisies, and a willow-tree growing in the 
middle. 

“0 Tiger-lily,” said Alice, addressing herself to 
one that was waving gracefully about in the wind, 
wish you could talk! ” 

“ We can talk,” said the Tiger-lily : “when there’s 
anybody worth talking to.” 

Alice was so astonished that she couldn’t speak 
for a minute: it quite seemed to take her breath 
away. At length, as the Tiger-lily ouly went on 
waving about, she spoke again, in a timid voice — 
almost in a whisper. “And can all the flowers 
talk?” 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


31 


‘‘As well as you cau,” said the Tiger-lily, “and a 
great deal louder.” 

“It isn’t manners for us to begin, you know,” 
said the Rose, “ and I really was wondering when 
you’d speak! Said I to myself, ‘ Her face has got 
some sense in it, though it’s not a clever one!’ 
Still, you’re the right color, and that goes a long 
way.” 

“I don’t care about the color,” the Tiger-lily re- 
marked. “If only her petals curled up a little 
more, she’d he all right.” 

Alice didn’t like being criticised, so she began ask- 
ing questions. “Aren’t you sometimes frightened 
at being planted out here, with nobody to take care 
of you? ” 

“There’s the tree in the middle,” said the Rose: 
“what else is it good for? ” 

“But what could it do, if any danger came?” 
Alice asked. 

“It could bark,” said the Rose. 

“It says ‘ Bough-wough ! ’ ” cried a Daisy, 
“that’s why its branches are called boughs! ” 

“Didn’t you know that?” cried another Daisy, 
and here they all began shouting together, till the 
air seemed quite full of little shrill voices. “Si- 
lence, every one of you! ” cried the Tiger-lily, wav- 


32 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


ing itself passioaately from side to side, and trem- 
bling with excitement. “They know I can’t get at 
them ! ” it panted, bending its quivering head 
towards Alice, “or they wouldn’t dare to do it! ” 

“ Never mind ! ” Alice said in a soothing tone, and 
stooping down to the daisies, who were just begin- 
ning again, she whispered, “If you don’t hold your 
tongues. I’ll pick you ! ” 

There was silence in a moment, and several of 
the pink daisies turned white. 

“ That’s right ! ” said the Tiger-lily. “ The daisies 
are worst of all. When one speaks, they all begin 
together, and it’s enough to make one wither to 
hear the way they go on 1 ” 

“How is it you can all talk so nicely?” Alice 
said, hoping to get it into a better temper by a com- 
pliment. “I’ve been in many gardens before, but 
none of the flowers could talk.” 

“Put your hand down, and feel the ground,” said 
the Tiger-lily. “Then you’ll know why.” 

Alice did so. “It’s very hard,” she said, “but I 
don’t see what that has to do with it.” 

“In most gardens,” the Tiger-lily said, “they 
make the beds too soft — so that the flowers are 
always asleep.” 

This sounded a very good reason, and Alice was 



34 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


quite pleased to know it- “I never thought of that 
before ! ” she said. 

“It’s nay opinion that you never think at all,” 
the Eose said in a rather severe tone. 

“I never saw anybody that looked stupider,” a 
Violet said, so suddenly, that Alice quite jumped ; 
for it hadn’t spoken before. 

“Hold your tongue!” cried the Tiger-lily. “As 
if you ever saw anybody ! You keep your head 
under the leaves, and snore away there, till you 
know no more what’s going on in the world, than 
if you were a bud I ” 

“Are there any more people in the garden besides 
me?” Alice said, not choosing to notice the Eose’s 
last remark. 

“There’s one other flower in the garden that 
can move about like you,” said the Eose. “I 
wonder how you do it ” (“ You’re always won- 

dering,” said the Tiger-lily), “but she’s more bushy 
than you are.” 

“Is she like me?” Alice asked eagerly, for the 
thought crossed her mind, “There’s another little 
girl in the garden somewhere! ” 

“ Well, she has the same awkward shape as you,” 
the Eose said, “but she’s redder — and her petals are 
shorter, I think.” 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 35 


“Her petals are done up close, almost like a 
dahlia,” the Tiger-lily interrupted: “not tumbled 
about anyhow, like yours.” 

“But that’s not your fault,” the Rose added 
kindly: “you’re beginning to fade, you know — and 
then one can’t help one’s petals getting a little 
untidy.” 

Alice didn’t like this idea at all: so, to change 
the subject, she asked, “Does she ever come out 
here?” 

“I daresay you’ll see her soon,” said the Rose. 
“She’s one of the thorny kind.” 

“ Where does she wear the thorns? ” Alice asked 
with some curiosity. 

“Why, all round her head, of course,” the Rose 
replied. “I was wondering 3 mu hadn’t got some 
too. I thought it was the regular rule.” 

“She’s coming!” cried the Larkspur. “I hear 
her footstep, thump, thump, along the gravel- 
walk ! ” 

Alice looked round eagerly, and found that it was 
the Red Queen. “She’s grown a good deal!” was 
her first remark. She had indeed : when Alice first 
found her in the ashes, she had been only three 
inches high — and here she was, half a head taller 
than Alice herself. 


36 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


“It’s the fresh air that does it,” said the Eose; 
“wonderfully fine air it is out here.” 

“I think I’ll go and meet her,” said Alice, for, 
though the fiowers were interesting enough, she 
felt that it would he far grander to have a talk with 
a real Queen. 

“ You can’t possibly do that,” said the Eose: “I 
should advise you to walk the other way.” 

This sounded nonsense to Alice, so she said noth- 
ing, hut set off at once towards the Eed Queen. To 
her surprise, she lost sight of her in a moment, 
and found herself walking in at the front door 
again. 

A little provoked, she drew back, and after look- 
ing everywhere for the Queen (whom she spied out 
at last a long way off), she thought she would 
try the plan, this time, of walking in the opposite 
direction. 

It succeeded beautifully. She had not been walk- 
ing a minute before she found herself face to face 
with the Eed Queen, and full in sight of the hill she 
had been so long aiming at. 

“Where do you come from?” said the Eed 
Queen. “And where are you going? Look up, 
speak nicely, and don’t twiddle your fingers all 
the time.” 



38 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


Alice attended to all these directions, and ex- 
plained, as well as she could, that she had lost her 
way. 

“I don’t know what you mean by your way,” 
said the Queen : ^‘all the ways about here belong to 
me — but why did you come out here at all?” she 
added in a kinder tone. “Curtsey while you’re 
thinking what to say. It saves time.” 

Alice wondered a little at this, but she was too 
much in awe of the Queen to disbelieve it. “I’ll 
try it when I go home,” she thought to herself, 
“the next time I’m a little late for dinner.” 

“It’s time for you to answer now,” the Queen 
said, looking at her watch : “ open your mouth a 
little wider when you speak, and always say, ‘ your 
Majesty. ’ ” 

“ I only wanted to see what the garden was like, 
your Majesty ” 

“That’s right,” said the Queen, patting her on 
the head, which Alice didn’t like at all; “though, 
when you say ‘garden,’ — I’ve seen gardens, com- 
pared with which this would be a wilderness.” 

Alice didn’t dare to argue the point, but went 
on: “ — and I thought I’d try and find my way to 
the top of that hill ” 

“When you say ‘ hill,’ ” the Queen interrupted, 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


39 


“ I could show you hills, in comparison with which 
you’d call that a valley.” 

“No, I shouldn’t,” said Alice, surprised into con- 
tradicting her at last: “a hill can’t be a valley, you 

know. That would be nonsense ” 

The Eed Queen shook her head. “You may call 
it ‘ nonsense ’ if you like,” she said, “ but I’ve heard 
nonsense, compared with which that would be as 
sensible as a dictionary ! ” 

Alice curtseyed again, as she was afraid from the 
Queen’s tone that she was a little offended, and they 
walked on in silence till they got to the top of the hill. 

For some minutes Alice stood without speaking, 
looking out in all directions over the country — and 
a most curious country it was. There were a num- 
ber of tiny little brooks running straight across it 
from side to side, and the ground between was 
divided up into squares by a number of little green 
hedges, that reached from brook to brook. 

“I declare it’s marked out just like a large chess- 
board ! ” Alice said at last. “ There ought to be some 
men moving about somewhere — and so there are ! ” 
she added in a tone of delight, and her heart began 
to beat quick with excitement as she went on. “ It’s 
a great huge game of chess that’s being played — 
all over the world — if this is the world at all, you 


40 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


know. Oh, what fun it is ! How I wish I was one 
of them ! I wouldn’t mind being a Pawn, if only I 
might join — though of course I should like to be a 
Queen, best.” 

She glanced rather shyly at the real Queen as she 
said this, but her companion only smiled pleasantly, 
and said, “ That’s easily managed. You can be the 
White Queen’s Pawn, if you like, as Lily’s too young 
to play; and you’re in the Second Square to begin 
with: when you get to the Eighth Square youTl be 

a Queen ” Just at this moment, somehow or 

other, they began to run. 

Alice never could quite make out, in thinking it 
over afterwards, how it was that they began: all 
she remembers is, that they were running hand in 
hand, and the Queen went so fast that it was all she 
could do to keep up with her : and still the Queen kept 
crying “Faster! Faster! ” but Alice felt she could 
not go faster, though she had no breath left to say 
so. 

The most curious part of the thing was, that the 
trees and other things round them never changed 
their places at all: however fast they went, they 
never seemed to pass anything. “I wonder if all 
the things move along with us? ” thought poor puz- 
zled Alice. 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 41 


And the Queen seemed to guess her thoughts, for 
she cried : “ Faster ! Don’t try to talk ! ” 

Not that Alice had any idea of doing that. She 
felt as if she would never be able to talk again, she 



was getting so much out of breath : and still the 
Queen cried ‘‘Faster! Faster!” and dragged her 
along. “Are we nearly there?” Alice managed to 
pant out at last. 

“ Nearly there? ” the Queen repeated. “ Why, we 
passed it ten minutes ago ! Faster ! ” And they 


42 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


ran on for a time in silence, with the wind whist- 
ling in Alice’s ears, and almost blowing her hair off 
her head, she fancied. 

“ Now ! Now ! ” cried the Queen. “ Faster ! Fas- 
ter ! ” And they went so fast that at last they 
seemed to skim through the air, hardly touching 
the ground with their feet, till suddenly, just as 
Alice was getting quite exhausted, they stopped, 
and she found herself sitting on the ground, breath- 
less and giddy. 

The Queen propped her up against a tree and said 
kindly, ‘‘You may rest a little now.” 

Alice looked round her in great surprise. “ Why, 
I do believe we’ve been under this tree the whole 
time ! Everything’s just as it was ! ” 

“Of course it is,” said the Queen: “what would 
you have it? ” 

“Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting 
a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else — 
if you ran very fast for a long time, as we’ve been 
doing.” 

“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. 
“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you 
can do to keep in the same place. If you want to 
get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as 
fast as that I ” 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 43 


‘‘I’d rather not try, please! ’’said Alice. “I’m 
quite content to stay here — only I am so hot and 
thirsty 1 ” 

“I know what you’d like! ” the Queen said good- 
naturedly, taking a little box out of her pocket. 
“Have a biscuit?” 

Alice thought it would not be civil to say “No,” 
though it wasn’t at all what she wanted. So she 
took it, and ate it as well as she could : and it was 
very dry: and she thought she had never been so 
nearly choked in all her life. 

“ While you’re refreshing yourself,” said the 
Queen, “I’ll just take the measurements.” And 
she took a ribbon out of her pocket, marked in 
inches, and began measuring the ground, and stick- 
ing little pegs in here and there. 

“At the end of two yards,” she said, putting in a 
peg to mark the distance, “ I shall give you your 
directions — have another biscuit?” 

“No, thank you,” said Alice: “one’s quite 
enough ! ” 

“Thirst quenched, I hope?” said the Queen. 

Alice did not know what to say to this, but 
luckily the Queen did not wait for an answer, but 
went on. “At the end of three yards I shall repeat 
them — for fear of your forgetting them. At the 


44 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


end of four, I shall say good-bye. And at the end 
of five, I shall go! ” 

She had got all the pegs put in by this time, and 
Alice looked on with great interest as she returned 
to the tree, and then began slowly walking down 
the row. 

At the two-j^ard peg she faced round, and said, 
‘^A pawn goes two squares in its first move, you 
know. So you’ll go very quickly through the Third 
Square — by railway, I should think — and you’ll find 
yourself in the Fourth Square in no time. Well, 
that square belongs to Tweedledum and Tweedledee 
— the Fifth is mostly water — the Sixth belongs to 
Humpty Dumpty. But you make no remark? ” 

“ I — I didn’t know I had to make one — just then,” 
Alice faltered out. 

“You should have said,” the Queen went on in a 
tone of grave reproof, “ ‘ It’s extremely kind of you 
to tell me all this ’ — however, we’ll suppose it said 
— the Seventh Square is all forest — however, one 
of the Knights will show you the way — and in the 
Eighth Square we shall be Queens together, and it’s 
all feasting and fun 1 ” Alice got up and curtseyed, 
and sat down again. 

At the next peg the Queen turned again, and this 
time she said, “Speak in French when you can’t 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 45 


think of the English for a thing — turn out your 
toes when you walk — and remember who you are ! ” 
She did not wait for Alice to curtsey this time, but 
walked on quickly to the next peg, where she 



turned for a moment to say “good-bye,” and then 
hurried on to the last. 

How it happened, Alice never knew, but exactly 
as she came to the last peg, she was gone. Whether 
she vanished into the air, or whether she ran quickly 
into the wood (“ and she can run very fast ! ” thought 
Alice), there was no way of guessing, but she was 


46 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


gone, and Alice began to remember that she was a 
Pawn, and that it would soon be time for her to 
move. 


CHAPTER III. 

LOOKING-GLASS INSECTS. 

Of course the first thing to do was to make a 
grand survey of the country she was going to travel 
through. “It’s something very like learning geog- 
raphy,” thought Alice, as she stood on tiptoe in 
hopes of being able to see a little further. “ Prin- 
cipal rivers — there are none. Principal mountains 
— I’m on the only one, but I don’t think it’s got 
any name. Principal towns — why, what are those 
creatures, making honey down there? They can’t 
be bees — nobody ever saw bees a mile off, you 

know ” and for some time she stood silent, 

watching one of them that was bustling about 
among the flowers, poking its proboscis into them, 
“just as if it was a regular bee,” thought Alice. 

However, this was anything but a regular bee: 
in fact, it was an elephant — as Alice soon found out, 
though the idea quite took her breath away at first. 
“ And what enormous flowers they must be ! ” was 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 47 


her next idea. ‘‘Something like cottages with the 
roofs taken off, and stalks put to them — and what 
quantities of honey they must make! 1 think I’ll 
go down and — no, I won’t go just yet,” she went 
on, checking herself just as she was beginning to 
run down the hill, and trying to find some excuse 
for turning shy so suddenly. “It’ll never do to go’ 
down among them without a good long branch to 
brush them away — and what fun it’ll be when they 
ask me how I liked my walk. I shall say — ‘ Oli, I 
liked it well enough — ’ (here came the favorite little 
toss of the head), ‘only it was so dusty and hot, 
and the elephants did tease so! ’ ” 

“I think I’ll go down the other way,” she said 
after a pause: “and perhaps I may visit the ele- 
phants later on. Besides, I do so want to get into 
the Third Square ! ” 

So with this excuse she ran down the hill and 
jumped over the first of the six little brooks. 

^ ^ * 

* * * * 

^ ^ ^ W: * 

“Tickets, please!” said the Guard, putting his 
head in at the window. In a moment everybody 
was holding out a ticket: they were about the same 


48 THBOUQH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


size as the people, and quite seemed to fill the car- 
riage. 

“Now then! Show your ticket, child!” the 
Guard went on, looking angrily at Alice. And a 
great many voices all said together (“ like the chorus 
of a song,” thought Alice), “Don’t keep him wait- 
ing, child! Why, his time is worth a thousand 
pounds a minute ! ” 

“I’m afraid I haven’t got one,” Alice said in a 
frightened tone : “ there wasn’t a ticket-office where 
I came from.” And again the chorus of voices 
went on: “There wasn’t room for one where she 
came from. The land there is worth a thousand 
pounds an inch ! ” 

“Don’t make excuses,” said the Guard: “you 
should have bought one from the engine-driver.” 
And once more the chorus of voices went on with 
“ The man that drives the engine. Why, the smoke 
alone is worth a thousand pounds a puff ! ” 

Alice thought to herself, “ Then there’s no use in 
speaking.” The voices didn’t join in this time, as 
she hadn’t spoken, but, to her great surprise, they 
all thought in chorus (I hope you understand what 
thinking in chorus means — for I must confess that 
I don’t), “Better say nothing at all. Language is 
worth a thousand pounds a word 1 ” 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 49 


“I shall dream about a thousand pounds to-night, 
I know I shall ! ” thought Alice. 

All this time the Guard was looking at her, first 
through a telescope, then through a microscope, and 
then through an opera-glass. At last he said, 
“You’re travelling the wrong way,” and shut up 
the window and went away. 

“So young a child,” said the gentleman sitting 
opposite to her (he was dressed in white paper), 
“ought to know which way she’s going, even if she 
doesn’t know her own name! ” 

A Goat, that was sitting next to the gentle- 
man in white, shut his eyes and said in a 
loud voice, “She ought to know her way to the 
ticket-office, even if she doesn’t know her alpha- 
bet!” 

There was a Beetle sitting next the Goat (it was 
a very queer carriage-full of passengers altogether) , 
and, as the rule seemed to be that they should all 
speak in turn, he went on with “She’ll have to go 
back from here as luggage ! ” 

Alice couldn’t see who was sitting beyond the 
Beetle, but a hoarse voice spoke next. “Change 

engines ” it said, and there it choked and was 

obliged to leave off. 

“It sounds like a horse,” Alice thought to her* 
4 


50 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


self. And an extremely small voice, close to her 

ear, said, “you might make a joke on that— something about ‘horse* and 
‘hoarse,’ you know.” 

Then a very gentle voice in the distance said, 
She must be labelled ‘ Lass, with care, ’ you know. ” 

And after that other voices went on (“ What a 
number of people there are in the carriage ! ” 
thought Alice), saying “She must go by post, as 
she’s got a head on her.” “She must be sent as a 
message by the telegraph.” “She must draw the 
train herself the rest of the way,” and so on. 

But the gentleman dressed in white paper leaned 
forwards and whispered in her ear, “Never mind 
what they all say, my dear, but take a return -ticket 
every time the train stops.” 

“ Indeed I shan’t ! ” Alice said rather impatiently. 
“I don’t belong to this- railway journey at all — I 
was in a wood just now — and I wish I could get 
back there ! ” 

“You might make a joke on that,” Said the little VOice close 
to her ear : ‘ something about ‘ you would if you could,’ you know.” 

“Don’t tease so,” said Alice, looking about in 
vain to see where the voice came from: “if you’re 
so anxious to have a joke made, why don’t you 
make one yourself? ” 

The little voice sighed deeply : it was very un- 


THBOUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 51 


happy, evidently, and Alice would have said some- 
thing pitying to comfort it, ‘‘if it would only sigh 
like other people ! ” she thought. But this was such 
a wonderfully small sigh, that she wouldn’t have 
heard it at all, if it hadn’t come quite close to her 
ear. The consequence of this was that it tickled 
her ear very much, and quite took off her thoughts 
from the unhappiness of the poor little creature. 

“I know you are a friend,” the little Voice Went On ,' “a dear 
friend, and an old friend. And you won’t hurt me, though I am an Insect.” 

“What kind of insect?” Alice inquired a little 
anxiously. What she really wanted to know was, 
whether it could sting or not, but she thought this 
wouldn’t be quite a civil question to ask. 

“What, then you don’t — ” the little voice began, when 
it was drowned by a shrill scream from the engine, 
and everybody jumped up in alarm, Alice among 
the rest. 

The Horse, who had put his head out of the win- 
dow, quietly drew it in and said, “it’s only a brook 
we have to jump over.” Everybody seemed satis- 
fied with this, though Alice felt a little nervous at 
the idea of trains jumping at all. “However, it’ll 
take us into the Fourth Square, that’s some com- 
fort! ” she said to herself. In another moment she 
felt the carriage rise straight up into the air, and 


62 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


in her fright she caught at the thing nearest to her 
hand, which happened to be the Goat’s beard. 

^ ^ * 

* * * * 

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

But the beard seemed to melt away as she touched 
it, and she found herself sitting quietly under some 
tree — while the Gnat (for that was the insect she 
had been talking to) was balancing itself on a 
twig just over her head, and fanning her with 
its wings. 

It certainly was a very large Gnat : ‘‘ about the 
size of a chicken,” Alice thought. Still, she couldn’t 
feel nervous with it, after they had been talking to- 
gether so long. 

“ then you don’t like all insects? ” the Gnat 

went on, as quietly as if nothing had happened. 

“I like them when they can talk,” Alice said. 
“None of them ever talk, where I come from.” 

“ What sort of insects do you rejoice in where you 
come from? ” the Gnat inquired. 

“I don’t rejoice in insects at all,” Alice explained, 
“because I!m rather afraid of them — at least the 
large kinds. But I can tell you the names of some 
of them.” 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 53 


‘‘Of course they answer to their names?” the 
Gnat remarked carelessly. 

“I never knew ,’jhem do it.” 

“What’s the use of their having names,” the 
Gnat said, “if they won’t answer to them?” 



“No use to them,” said Alice; “but it’s useful to 
the people that name them, I suppose. If not, why 
do things have names at all? ” 


54 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


“I can’t say,” the Gnat replied. “Further on, 
in the wood down there, they’ve got no names — 
however, go on with your list of insects; you’re 
wasting time.” 

“ Well, there’s the Horse-fly,” Alice began, count- 
ing off the names on her Angers. 

“All right,” said the Gnat: “half way up that 
bush, you’ll see a Rocking-horse-fly, if you look. 
It’s made entirely of wood, and gets about by 
swinging itself from branch to branch.” 

“ What does it live on? ” Alice asked, with great 
curiosity. 

“ Sap and sawdust, ” said the Gnat. “ Go on with 
the list.” 

Alice looked at the Rocking-horse-fly with great 
interest, and made up her mind that it must have 
been just repainted, it looked so bright and sticky; 
and then she went on. 

“And there’s the Dragon-fly.” 

“Look on the branch above your head,” said the 
Gnat, “and there you’ll And a Snap-dragon-fly. 
Its body is made of plum-pudding, its wings of 
holly -leaves, and its head is a raisin burning in 
brandy.” 

“And what does it live on?” Alice asked, as 
before. 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 55 


“Frumenty and mince-pie,” the Gnat replied; 
“and it makes its nest in a Christmas-box.” 

“And then there’s the Butterfly,” Alice went on, 
after she had taken a good look at the insect with 
its head on Are, and had thought to herself, “I 
wonder if that’s the reason insects are so fond of fly- 
ing into candles — because they want to turn into 
Snap-dragon -flies ! ” 

“Crawling at your feet,” said the Gnat (Alice 
drew her feet hack in some alarm), “you may ob- 
serve a Bread-and-butter-fly. Its wings are thin 
slices of bread-and-butter, its body is a crust, and 
its head is a lump of sugar.” 

“ And what does it live on? ” 

“ Weak tea with cream in it.” 

A new difiSculty came into Alice’s head. “Sup- 
posing it couldn’t And any?” she suggested. 

“Then it would die, of course.” 

“But that must happen very often,” Alice re- 
marked thoughtfully. 

“It always happens,” said the Gnat. 

After this, Alice was silent for a minute or two, 
pondering. The Gnat amused itself meanwhile by 
humming round and round her head: at last it 
settled again and remarked, “I suppose you don’t 
want to lose your name? ” 


56 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


“No, indeed,” Alice said, a little anxiously. 

“And yet I don’t know,” the Gnat went on in a 
careless tone: “only think how convenient it would 
be if you could manage to go home without it ! For 
instance, if the governess wanted to call you to your 

lessons, she would call out ‘ Come here , ’ and 

there she would have to leave off, because there 
wouldn’t be any name for her to call, and of course 
you wouldn’t have to go, you know.” 

“That would never do, I’m sure,” said Alice: 
“the governess would never think of excusing me 
lessons for that. If she couldn’t remember my 
name, she’d call me ‘ Miss! ’ as the servants do.” 

“Well, if she said ‘Miss,’ and didn’t say any- 
thing more,” the Gnat remarked, “of course you’d 
miss your lessons. That’s a joke. I wish you had 
made it.” 

“ Why do you wish I had made it? ” Alice asked. 
“It’s a very bad one.” 

But the Gnat only sighed deeply, while two large 
tears came rolling down its cheeks. 

“You shouldn’t make jokes,” Alice said, “if it 
makes you so unhappy.” 

Then came another of those melancholy little 
sighs, and this time the poor Gnat really seemed to 
have sighed itself away, for, when Alice looked up. 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 57 


there was nothing whatever to be seen on the twig, 
and, as she was getting quite chilly with sitting 
still so long, she got up and walked on. 

She very soon came to an open field, with a wood 
on the other side of it : it looked much darker than 



the last wood, and Alice felt a little timid about 
going into it. However, on second thoughts, she 
made up her mind to go on: “for I certainly won’t 
go back,” she thought to herself, and this was the 
only way to the Eighth Square. 

“This must be the wood,” she said thoughtfully 


58 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


to herself, “where things have no names. I won- 
der what’ll become of my name when I go in? I 
shouldn’t like to lose it at all — because they’d have 
to give me another, and it would be almost certain 
to be an ugly one. But then the fun would be, try- 
ing to find the creature that had got my old name! 
That’s just like the advertisements, you know, when 
people lose dogs — ^ answers to the name of “Dash : ” 
had on a brass collar ’ — just fancy calling every- 
thing you met ‘ Alice,’ till one of them answered! 
If they were wise, they wouldn’t answer at all.” 

She was rambling on in this way when she 
reached the wood : it looked very cool and shady. 
“ Well, it’s a great comfort, after being so hot, to 
get into the — into the — into what?” she went on, 
rather surprised at not being able to think of the 
word. “I mean to get under the — under the — 
under this, you know ! ” putting her hand on the 
trunk of the tree. “ What does it call itself, I won- 
der? I do believe it’s got no name — why, to be 
sure it hasn’t ! ” 

She stood silent for a minute, thinking : then she 
suddenly began again. “Then it really has hap- 
pened, after all! And now, who am I? I will re- 
member, if I can ! I’m determined to do it ! ” But 
being determined didn’t help her much, and all she 


THBOUGE THE LOOKING-GLASS. 59 


could say, after a great deal of puzzling, was, “L, 
I know it begins with L! ” 

Just then a Fawn catoe wandering by: it looked 
at Alice with its large gentle eyes, but didn’t seem 
at all frightened. “Here then! Here then!” 
Alice said as she held out her hand and tried to 
stroke it ; but it only started back a little, and then 
stood looking at her again. 

“ What do you call yourself? ” the Fawn said. 

“I wish I knew!” thought poor Alice. She 
answered, rather sadly, “Nothing, just now.” 

“Think again,” it said: “that won’t do.” 

Alice thought, but nothing came of it. “Please, 
would you tell me what you call yourself?” she 
said timidly. “I think that might help a little.” 

“I’ll tell you, if you’ll come a little further on,” 
the Fawn said. “I can’t remember here.” 

So they walked on together through the wood, 
Alice with her arms clasped lovingly round the soft 
neck of the Fawn, till they came out into another 
open field, and here the Fawn gave a sudden bound 
into the air, and shook itself free from Alice’s arms. 
“I’m a Fawn!” it cried out in a voice of delight, 
“ and, dear me ! you’re a human child ! ” A sudden 
look of alarm came into its beautiful eyes, and in 
another moment it had darted away at full speed. 


60 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


“ Well, I know my name now,” she said, “that’s 
some comfort. Alice — Alice — I won’t forget it 
again. And now, which of these finger-posts 
ought I to follow, I wonder? ” 

It was not a very difficult question to answer, as 
there was only one road through the wood, and the 
two finger-posts both pointed along it. “I’ll settle 
it,” Alice said to herself, “when the road divides 
and they point different ways.” 

But this did not seem likely to happen. She 
went on and on, a long way, but wherever the road 
divided there were sure to be two finger-posts point- 
ing the same way, one marked “TO TWEEDLE- 
DUM’S HOUSE,” and the other “TO THE HOUSE 
OF TWEEDLEDEE.” 

“I do believe,” said Alice at last, “that they live 
in the same house ! I wonder I never thought of 
that before — But I can’t stay there long. I’ll just 
call and say ‘ How d’ye do? ’ and ask them the way 
out of the wood. If I could only get to the Eighth 
Square before it gets dark! ” So she wandered on, 
talking to herself as she went, till, on turning a 
sharp corner, she came upon two fat little men, so 
suddenly that she could not help starting back, but 
in another moment she recovered herself, feeling 
sure that they must be 


\ 



62 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


CHAPTER IV. 

TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE. 

They were standing under a tree, each with an 
arna round the other’s neck, and Alice knew which 
was which in a moment, because one of them had 
DUM ” embroidered on his collar, and the other 
“ DEE. ” I suppose they’ve each got ^ TWEEDLE ’ 
round at the back of the collar,” she said to her- 
self. 

They stood so still that she quite forgot they were 
alive, and she was just looking round to see if the 
word ‘‘ T WEEDLE ” was written at the back of each 
collar, when she was startled by a voice coming 
from the one marked “ DUM.” 

“If you think we’re wax-works,” he said, “you 
ought to pay, you know. Wax-works weren’t made 
to be looked at for nothing. Nohow ! ” 

“Contrariwise,” added the one marked “DEE,” 
“if you think we’re alive, you ought to speak.” 

“I’m sure I’m very sorry,” was all Alice could 
say; for the words of the old song kept ringing 
through her head like the ticking of a clock, and 
she could hardly help saying them out loud : 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 63 


“ Tweedledum and Tweedledee 
Agreed to have a battle; 

For Tweedledum said Tweedledee 
Had spoiled his nice new rattle. 

“Just then flew down a monstrous crow 
As black as a tar barrel, 

Which frightened both the heroes so, 

They quite forgot their quarrel.” 

‘‘I know what you’re thinking about,” said 
Tweedledum: “but it isn’t so, nohow.” 

“Contrariwise,” continued Tweedledee, “if it was 
so, it might be ; and if it were so, it would be ; but 
as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.” 

“I was thinking,” Alice said very politely, 
“which is the best way out of this wood: it’s get- 
ting so dark. Would jmu tell me please? ” 

But the fat little men only looked at each other 
and grinned. 

They looked so exactly like a couple of great 
school boys, that Alice couldn’t help pointing 
her finger at Tweedledum, and saying “First 
Boy ! ” 

“Nohow!” Tweedledum cried out briskly, and 
shut his mouth up again with a snap. 

“ Next Boy 1 ” said Alice, passing on to Tweedle- 


64 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


dee, though she felt quite certain he would only 
shout out, “Contrariwise! ” and so he did. 

“You’ve begun wrong!” cried Tweedledum. 
“The first thing in a visit is to say ‘ How d’ye do? ’ 
and shake hands!” And here the two brothers 
gave each other a hug, and then they held out the 
two hands that were free, to shake hands with her. 

Alice did not like shaking hands with either of 
them first, for fear of hurting the other one’s feel- 
ings ; so, as the best way out of the difficulty, she 
took hold of both hands at once: the next moment 
they were dancing round in a ring. This seemed 
quite natural (she remembered afterwards), and 
she was not even surprised to hear music playing; 
it seemed to come from the tree under which they 
were dancing, and it was done (as well as she could 
make it out) by the branches rubbing one across the 
other, like fiddles and fiddle-sticks. 

“ But it certainly was funny ” (Alice said after- 
wards, when she was telling her sister the history 
of all this), “to find myself singing ‘Here we go 
round the mulberry bush. ’ I don’t know when I 
began it, but somehow I felt as if I’d been singing 
it a long, long time! ” 

The other two dancers were fat, and very soon 
out of breath. “Four times round is enough for 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 65 


one dance,” Tweedledum panted out, and they left 
off dancing as suddenly as they had begun: the 
music stopped at the same moment. 

Then they let go of Alice’s hands, and stood look- 







ing at her for a minute: there was a rather awk- 
ward pause, as Alice didn’t know how to begin a 
conversation with people she had just been dancing 


66 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


with. “It would never do to say ‘ How d’ye do? ’ 
now,” she said to herself: “we seem to have got 
beyond that, somehow ! ” 

“I hope you’re not much tired?” she said at last. 

“Nohow. And thank you very much for ask- 
ing,” said Tweedledum. 

“So much obliged!” added Tweedledee. “You 
like poetry? ” 

“Ye-es pretty well — some poetry,” Alice said 
doubtfully. “ Would you tell me which road leads 
out of the wood? ” 

“ What shall I repeat to her?” said Tweedledee, 
looking round at Tweedledum with great solemn 
eyes, and not noticing Alice’s question. 

“ ‘ The Walrus and the Carpenter ’ is the longest,” 
Tweedledum replied, giving his brother an affec- 
tionate hug. 

Tweedledee began instantly : 

“ The sun was shining ” 

Here Alice ventured to interrupt him. “If it’s 
very long,” she said, as politely as she could, “ would 
you please tell me first which road — ” 

Tweedledee smiled gently, and began again : 

“ The sun was shining on the sea. 

Shining with all his might ; 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 67 


“ He did his very best to make 

The billows smooth and bright — 
And this was odd, because it was 
The middle of the night. 

“ The moon was shining sulkily, 
Because she thought the sun 
Had got no business to be there 
After the day was done — 

‘ It’s very rude of him,’ she said, 

^ To come and spoil the fun ! ’ 

‘‘ The sea was wet as wet could be. 
The sands were dry as dry. 

You could not see a cloud, because 
Ho cloud was in the sky : 

Ho birds were flying overhead — 
There were no birds to fly. 

‘‘ The Walrus and the Carpenter 
Were walking close at hand; 
They wept like anything to see 
Such quantities of sand : 

‘ If this were only cleared away,’ 
They said, ‘ it would be grand ! ’ 

“ ‘ If seven maids with seven mops 
Swept it for half a year. 

Do you suppose,’ the Walrus said, 

‘ That they could get it clear? ’ 


68 THBOUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 



“ ‘ I doubt it, ’ said the Carpenter, 

And shed a bitter tear. 

^ 0 Oysters, come and walk with us ! ' 

The Walrus did beseech. 

* A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk, 
Along the briny beach : 

We cannot do with more than four. 
To give a hand to each.’ 

“ The eldest Oyster looked at him, 

But never a word he said : 



THBOUGE THE LOOKING-GLASS, 69 


The eldest Oyster winked his eye, 

And shook his heavy head — 

Meaning to say he did not choose 
To leave the oyster-bed. 

“ But four young Oysters hurried up, 

All eager for the treat : 

Their coats were brushed, their faces washed, 
Their shoes were clean and neat — 

And this was odd, because, you know. 

They hadn’t any feet. 



THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


“ Eour other Oysters followed them, 

And yet another four ; 

And thick and fast they came at last, 
And more, and more, and more — 

All hopping through the frothy waves, 
And scrambling to the shore. 

“ The Walrus and the Carpenter 
Walked on a mile or so. 

And then they rested on a rock 
Conveniently low : 

And all the little Oysters stood. 

And waited in a row. 

“ ‘ The time has come,^ the Walrus said, 

^ To talk of many things : 

Of shoes — and ships — and sealing wax — 
Of cabbages — and kings — 

And why the sea is boiling hot — 

And whether pigs have wings.’ 

“ ^ But wait a bit, ’ the Oysters cried, 

‘ Before we have our chat; 

For some of us are out of breath. 

And all of us are fat ! ’ 

‘ No hurry ! ’ said the Carpenter. 

They thanked him much for that. 

A loaf of bread,’ the Walrus said, 

‘ Is what we chiefly need: 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


71 


“ Pepper and vinegar besides 
Are very good indeed — 

Now if you’re ready, Oysters dear, 
We can begin to feed.’ 

“ ‘ But not on us ! ’ the Oysters cried, 
Turning a little blue. 

‘ After such kindness, that would be 
A dismal thing to do ! ’ 

‘ The night is fine,’ the Walrus said, 

^ Do you admire the view? ’ 

“ ‘ It was so kind of you to come ! 

And you are very nice ! ’ 

The Carpenter said nothing but 
‘ Cut us another slice : 

I wish you were not quite so deaf — 
I’ ve had to ask you twice ! ’ 

It seems a shame,’ the Walrus said, 
‘To play them such a trick. 

After we’ve brought them out so far. 
And made them trot so quick ! ’ 
The Carpenter said nothing out 
‘ The butter’s spread too thick! ’ 

I weep for you,’ the Walrus said: 

‘ I deeply sympathize.’ 

With sobs and tears he sorted out 
Those of the largest size, 


72 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


Holding his pocket-handkerchief 
Before his streaming eyes. 

‘‘‘ 0 Oysters/ said the Carpenter, 

‘ You’ve had a pleasant run! 

Shall we be trotting home again?’ 

But answer came there none — 

And this was scarcely odd, because 
They’d eaten every one.” 

‘‘I like the Walrus best,” said Alice: “because 
you see he was a little sorry for the poor oysters.” 

“He ate more than the Carpenter, though,” said 
Tweedledee. “You see he held his handkerchief in 
front, so that the carpenter couldn’t count how 
many he took: contrariwise.” 

“That was mean!” Alice said indignantly. 
“Then I like the Carpenter best — if he didn’t eat 
so many as the Walrus.” 

“But he ate as many as he could get,” said 
Tweedledum. 

This was a puzzler. After a pause, Alice began, 
“Well! They were both very unpleasant charac- 
ters — ” Here she checked herself in some alarm, 
at hearing something that sounded to her like the 
puffing of a large steam-engine in the wood near 
them, though she feared it was more likely to be a 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 73 


wild beast. “Are there any lions or tigers about 
here?” she asked timidly. 

“It’s only the Ked King snoring,” said Tweedle- 
dee. 

“ Come and look at him ! ” the brothers cried, and 



they each took one of Alice’s hands, and led her up 
to where the King was sleeping. 

“Isn’t he a lovely sight?” said Tweedledum. 


74 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


Alice couldn’t say honestly that he was. He had 
a tall red night-cap on, with a tassel, and he was 
lying crumpled up into a sort of untidy heap, and 
snoring loud — “fit to snore his head off! ” as Twee- 
dledum remarked. 

“I’m afraid he’ll catch cold with lying on the 
damp grass,” said Alice, who was a very thought- 
ful little girl. 

“He’s dreaming now,” said Tweedledee: “and 
what do you think he’s dreaming about? ” 

Alice said, “Nobody can guess that.” 

“ Why, about you! ” Tweedledee exclaimed, clap- 
ping his hands triumphantly. “And if he left off 
dreaming about you, where do you suppose you’d 
be?” 

“ Where I am now, of course,” said Alice. 

“Not you!” Tweedledee retorted contemptu- 
ously. “You’d be nowhere. Why, you’re only a 
sort of thing in his dream ! ” 

“If that there King was to wake,” added Twee- 
dledum, “you’d go out — bang! — just like a 
candle!” 

“I shouldn’t!” Alice exclaimed indignantly. 
“Besides, if I’m only a sort of thing in his dream, 
what are you, I should like to know?” 

“Ditto,” said Tweedledum. 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 75 


“Ditto, ditto!” cried Tweedledee. 

He shouted this so loud that Alice couldn’t help 
saying: “Hush! You’ll be waking him, I’m afraid, 
if you make so much noise.” 

“Well, it’s no use your talking about waking 
him,” said Tweedledum, “when you’re only one of 
the things in his dream. You know very well 
you’re not real.” 

“I am real! ” said Alice, and began to cry. 

“You won’t make yourself a bit reader by cry- 
ing, ” Tweedledee remarked : “ there’s nothing to cry 
about.” 

“If I wasn’t real,” Alice said — half-laughing 
through her tears, it all seemed so ridiculous — “I 
shouldn’t be able to cry.” 

“I hope you don’t suppose those are real tears? ” 
Tweedledum interrupted in a tone of great con- 
tempt. 

“I know they’re talking nonsense,” Alice thought 
to herself: “and it’s foolish to cry about it.” So 
she brushed away her tears, and went on as cheer- 
fully as she could, “At any rate I’d better be get- 
ting out of the wood, for really it’s coming on very 
dark. Do you think it’s going to rain? ” 

Tweedledum spread a large umbrella over him- 
self and his brother, and looked up into it. “ No, I 


76 THBOUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


don’t think it is,” ho said: “at least — not under 
here. Nohow.” 

“But it may rain outside?” 

“ It may — if it chooses, ” said Tweedledee : “ we’ve 
no objection. Contrariwise.” 

“Selfish things!” thought Alice, and she was 
just going to say “Good-night” and leave them, 
when Tweedledum sprang out from under the um- 
brella, and seized her by the wrist. 

“Do you see that?” he said, in a voice choking 
with passion, and his eyes grew large and yellow 
all in a moment, as he pointed with a trembling 
finger at a small white thing lying under the tree. 

“It’s only a rattle,” Alice said, after a careful 
examination of the little white thing. “Not a 
rattle-snake, you know,” she added hastily, think- 
ing that he was frightened: “only an old rattle — 
quite old and broken.” 

“I knew it was!” cried Tweedledum, beginning 
to stamp about wildly and tear his hair. “It’s 
spoilt, of course ! ” Here he looked at Tweedledee, 
who immediately sat down on the ground and tried 
to hide himself under the umbrella. 

Alice laid her hand upon his arm, and said in a 
soothing tone, “You needn’t be so angry about an 
old rattle.” 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 77 


“But it isn’t old!” Tweedledum cried, in a 
greater fury than ever. “It’s new, I tell you— I 
bought it yesterday — my nice new BATTLE ! ” and 
his voice rose to a perfect scream. 



All this time Tweedledee was trying his best to 
fold up the umbrella, with himself in it : which was 
such an extraordinary thing to do, that it quite took 
off Alice’s attention from the angry brother. But 
he couldn’t quite succeed, and it ended in his rolling 
over, bundled up in the umbrella, with only his 
head out: and there he lay, opening and shutting 


78 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


his mouth and his large eyes — “looking more like 
a fish than anything else,” Alice thought. 

“ Of course you agree to have a battle? ” Tweedle- 
dum said in a calmer tone. 

“I suppose so,” the other sulkily replied, as he 
crawled out of the umbrella: “only she must help 
us to dress up, you know.” 

So the two brothers went off hand-in-hand into 
the wood, and returned in a minute with their arms 
full of things — such as bolster, blankets, hearth- 
rugs, table-cloths, dish-covers, and coal-scuttles. 
“I hope you’re a good hand at pinning and tying 
strings?” Tweedledum remarked. “Everyone of 
these things has got to go on, somehow or other.” 

Alice said afterwards she had never seen such a 
fuss made about anything in all her life — the way 
those two bustled about — and the quantity of things 
they put on — and the trouble they gave her in tying 
strings and fastening buttons — “Really they’ll be 
more like bundles of old clothes than anything else, 
by the time they’re ready! ” she said to herself, as 
she arranged a bolster round the neck of Tweedle- 
dee, “ to keep his head from being cut off,” as he said. 

“ You know,” he added very gravely, “it’s one of 
the most serious things that can possibly happen to 
one in a battle — to get one’s head cut off.”. 


THBOUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 79 


Alice laughed loud: but she managed to turn it 
into a cough, for fear of hurting his feelings. ‘‘Do 
I look very pale?” said Tweedledum, coming up to 
have his helmet tied on. (He called it a helmet, 
though it certainly looked much more like a sauce- 
pan.) 

“Well — yes — a little,” Alice replied gently. 

“I’m very brave generally,” he went on in a 
low voice: “only to-day I happen to have a head- 
ache.” 

“And I’ve got a toothache!” said Tweedledee. 
who had overheard the remark. “I’m far worse 
than you ! ” 

“Then you’d better not fight to-day,” said Alice, 
thinking it a good opportunity to make peace. 

“ We must have a bit of a fight, but I don’t care 
about going on long,” said Tweedledum. “What’s 
the time now? ” 

Tweedledee looked at his watch, and said, “ Half- 
past four.” 

“Let’s fight till six, and then have dinner,” said 
Tweedledum. 

“Very well,” the other said, rather sadly: “and 
she can watch us — only you’d better not come very 
close,” he added: “I generally hit everything I can 
see — when I get really excited.” 


80 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 



“And I hit everything within reach,” cried 
Tweedledum, “whether I can see it or not! ” 

Alice laughed. “You must hit the trees pretty 
often, I should think,” she said. 

Tweedledum looked round him with a satisfied 
smile. “I don’t suppose,” he said, “there’ll be a 
tree left standing, for ever so far round, by the 
time we’ve finished I ” 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 81 


‘‘And all about a rattle! ” said Alice, still hoping 
to make them a little ashamed of fighting for such 
a trifle. 

“I shouldn’t have minded it so much,” said Twee- 
dledum, “if it hadn’t been a new one.” 

“I wish the monstrous crow would come!” 
thought Alice. 

“There’s only one sword, you know,” Tweedle- 



6 


82 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


dum said to his brother: “but you can have the 
umbrella — it’s quite as sharp. Only we must begin 
quick. It’s getting as dark as it can.” 

“And darker,” said Tweedledee. 

It was getting dark so suddenly that Alice thought 
there must be a thunder-storm coming on. “ What 
a thick black cloud that is! ” she said. “And how 
fast it comes! Why, I do believe it’s got wings! ” 
“It’s the crow!” Tweedledum cried out in a 
shrill voice of alarm : and the two brothers took to 
their heels and were out of sight in a moment. 

Alice ran a little way into the wood, and stopped 
under a large tree. “It can never get at me here,” 
she thought: “it’s far too large to squeeze itself in 
among the trees. But I wish it wouldn’t flap its 
wings so — it makes quite a hurricane in the wood — 
here’s somebody’s shawl being blown away! ” 


CHAPTER V. 

WOOL AND WATER. 

She caught the shawl as she spoke, and looked 
about for the owner: in another moment the White 
Queen came running wildly through the wood, with 
both arms stretched out wide, as if she were fly- 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 83 

ing, and Alice very civilly went to meet her with the 
shawl. 

“I’m very glad I happened to be in the way,” 
Alice said, as she helped her to put on her shawl 
again. 

The White Queen only looked at her in a helpless 
frightened sort of way, and kept repeating some- 
thing in a whisper to herself that sounded like 
“Bread-and-butter, bread-and-butter,” and Alice 
felt that if there was to be any conversation at all, 
she must manage it herself. So she began rather 
timidly: “Am I addressing the White Queen?” 

“ Well, yes, if you call that a-dressing,” the Queen 
said. “It isn’t my notion of the thing, at all.” 

Alice thought it would never do to have an argu- 
ment at the very beginning of their conversation, 
so she smiled and said, “If your Majesty will only 
tell me the right way to begin. I’ll do it as well as 
I can.” 

“But I don’t want it done at all!” groaned the 
poor Queen. “I’ve been a-dressing myself for the 
last two hours.” 

It would have been all the better, as it seemed to 
Alice, if she had got some one else to dress her, she 
was so dreadfully untidy. “Every single thing's 
crooked,” Alice thought to herself, “and she’s all 


84 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


over pins! — May I put your shawl straight for 
you?” she added aloud. 

“I don’t know what’s the matter with it!” the 
Queen said in a melancholy voice. “It’s out of 
temper, I think. I’ve pinned it here, and I’ve 
pinned it there, but there’s no pleasing it! ” 

“It can’t go straight, you know, if you pin it all 
on one side,” Alice said, as she gently put it right 
for her; “and, dear me, what a state your hair is 
in ! ” 

“The brush has got entangled in it! ” the Queen 
said with a sigh. “ And I lost the comb yesterday.” 

Alice carefully released the brush, and did her 
best to get the hair into order. “ Come, you look 
rather better now ! ” she said after altering most of 
the pins. “But really you should have a lady’s- 
maid ! ” 

“I’m sure I’ll take you with pleasure!” the 
Queen said. “Twopence a week, and jam every 
other day.” 

Alice couldn’t help laughing, as she said, “I 
don’t want you to hire me — and I don’t care for 
jam.” 

“It’s very good jam,” said the Queen. 

“Well, I don’t want any to-day, at any rate.” 

“You couldn’t have it if you did want it,” the 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 85 


Queen said. “The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam 
yesterday — but never jam to-day.” 

“ It must come sometimes to ‘ jam to-day, ’ ” Alice 
objected. 



“No, it can’t,” said the Queen. “It’s jam 
every other day: to-day isn’t any other day, you 
know.” 


86 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


‘‘I don’t understand you,” said Alice. “It’s 
dreadfully confusing! ” 

“That’s the effect of living backwards,” the 
Queen said kindly: “it always makes one a little 
giddy first — ” 

“Living backwards!” Alice repeated in great 
astonishment. “I never heard of such a thing! ” 

“ — but there’s one great advantage in it, that 
one’s memory works both ways.” 

“I’m sure mine only works one way,” Alice re- 
marked. “I can’t remember things before they 
happen.” 

“ It’s a poor sort of memory that only works back- 
wards,” the Queen remarked. 

“What sort of things do you remember best?” 
Alice ventured to ask. 

“Oh, things that happen the week after next,” 
the Queen replied in a careless tone. “For in- 
stance, now,” she went on, sticking a large piece of 
plaster on her finger as she spoke, “there’s the 
King’s Messenger. He’s in prison now, being pun- 
ished: and the trial doesn’t even begin till next 
Wednesday: and of course the crime comes last of 
all.” 

“Suppose he never commits the crime?” said 
Alice. 


THBOUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


87 


“That would be all the better, wpuldn’t it?” the 
Queen said, as she bound the plaster round her 
finger with a bit of ribbon. 

Alice felt there was no denying that. “ Of course 
it would be all the better,” she said: “but it 
wouldn’t be all the better his being punished.” 

“You’re wrong there, at any rate,” said the 
Queen: “were you ever punished? ” 

“Only for faults,” said Alice. 

“And you were all the better for it, I know!” 
the Queen said triumphantly. 

“Yes, but then I had done the things I was pun- 
ished for,” said Alice: “that makes all the differ- 
ence.” 

“But if you hadn’t done them,” the Queen said, 
“that would have been better still; better, and 
better, and better!” Her voice went higher with 
each “better,” till it got quite to a squeak at 
last. 

Alice was just beginning to say “There’s a mis- 
take somewhere — ,” when the Queen began scream- 
ing, so loud that she had to leave the sentence un- 
finished. “Oh, oh, oh!” shouted the Queen, shak- 
ing her hand about as if she wanted to shake it off. 
“My finger’s bleeding! Oh, oh, oh, oh!” 

Her screams were so exactly like the whistle of a 


88 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


steam-engine, that Alice had to hold both her hands 
over her ears. 

“ What is the matter? ’’ she said, as soon as there 
was a chance of making herself heard. ‘‘ Have you 
pricked your finger? ” 

“I haven’t pricked it yet,” the Queen said, “hut 
I soon shall — oh, oh, oh ! ” 

“When do you expect to do it?” Alice asked, 
feeling very much inclined to laugh. 

“ When I fasten my shawl again,” the poor Queen 
groaned out : “ the brooch will come undone directly. 
Oh, oh ! ” As she said the words the brooch flew 
open, and the Queen clutched wildly at it, and tried 
to clasp it again. 

“Take care!” cried Alice. “You’re holding it 
all crooked ! ” And she caught at the brooch ; but 
it was too late : the pin had slipped, and the Queen 
had pricked her finger. 

“That accounts for the bleeding, you see,” she 
said to Alice with a smile. “Now you understand 
the way things happen here.” 

“But why don’t you scream now? ” Alice asked, 
holding her hands ready to put over her ears again. 

“ Why, I’ve done all the screaming already,” said 
the Queen. “ What would be the good of having it 
all over again? ” 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 89 


By this time it was gettiog light. “The crow 
must have flown away, I think,” said Alice: “I’m 
so glad it’s gone. I thought it was the night com- 
ing on.” 

“I wish I could manage to be glad ! ” the Queen 



said. “ Only I never can remember the rule. You 
must be very happy, living in this wood, and being 
glad whenever you like ! ” 

“Only it is so very lonely here! ” Alice said in a 


90 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


melancholy voice; and at the thought of her loneli- 
ness two large tears came rolling down her cheeks. 

“Oh, don’t go on like that!” cried the poor 
Queen, wringing her hands in despair. “Consider 
what a great girl you are. Consider what a long 
way you’ve come to-day. Consider what o’clock it 
is. Consider anything, only don’t cry!” Alice 
could not help laughing afc this, even in the midst 
of her tears. “ Can you keep from crying by con- 
sidering things?” she asked. 

“That’s the way it’s done,” the Queen said with 
great decision: “nobody can do two things at once, 
you know. Let’s consider your age to begin with 
— how old are you? ” 

“I’m seven and a half exactly.” 

“You needn’t say ‘exactually, ’ ” the Queen re- 
marked: “I can believe it without that. Now I’ll 
give you something to believe. I’m just one hun- 
dred and one, five months and a day.” 

“I can’t believe that! ” said Alice. 

“Can’t you?” the Queen said in a pitying tone. 
“Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your 
eyes.” 

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she 
said: “one can’t believe impossible things.” 

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said 


THBOUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 91 


the Queen. “ When I was your age, I always did 
it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve 
believed as many as six impossible things before 
breakfast. There goes the shawl again ! ” 

The brooch had come undone as she spoke, and a 
sudden gust of wind blew the Queen’s shawl across 
a little brook. The Queen spread out her arms 
again, and went flying after it, and this time she 
succeeded in catching it for herself. “I’ve got it ! ” 
she cried in a triumphant tone. “Now you shall 
see me pin it on again, all by myself! ” 

“Then I hope your finger is better now?” Alice 
said very politely, as she crossed the little brook 
after the Queen. 

****** 

***** 

****** 


“ Oh, much better ! ” cried the Queen, her voice 
rising into a squeak as she went on. “Much 
be-etter! Be-etter! Be-e-e-etter ! Be-e-ehh!” The 
last word ended in a long bleat, so like a sheep that 
Alice quite started. 

She looked at the Queen, who seemed to have 
suddenly wrapped herself up in wool. Alice rubbed 


92 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


her eyes, and looked again. She couldn’t make out 
what had happened at all. Was she in a shop? 
And was that really — was it really a sheep that was 
sitting on the other side of the counter? Eub as 
she would, she could make nothing more of it : she 
was in a little dark shop, leaning with her elbows 
on the counter, and opposite to her was an old 
Sheep, sitting in an arm-chair knitting, and every 
now and then leaving off to look at her through a 
great pair of spectacles. 

“ What is it you want to buy?” the Sheep said 
at last, looking up for a moment from her knitting. 

‘‘I don’t quite know yet,” Alice said very gently. 
‘‘I should like to look all round me first, if I 
might.” 

“You may look in front of you, and on both sides, 
if you like,” said the Sheep; “but you can’t look all 
round you — unless you’ve got eyes at the back of 
your head.” 

But these, as it happened, Alice had not got: so 
she contented herself with turning round, looking 
at the shelves as she came to them. 

The shop seemed to be full of all manner of curi- 
ous things — but the oddest part of it all was, that 
whenever she looked hard at any shelf, to make out 
exactly what it had on it, that particular shelf was 








94 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


always quite empty: though the others round it 
were crowded as full as they could hold. 

“ Things flow about so here ! ” she said at last in 
a plaintive tone, after she had spent a minute or so 
in vainly pursuing a large bright thing, that looked 
sometimes like a doll and sometimes like a work- 
box, and was always in the shelf next above the one 
she was looking at. “And this one is the most pro- 
voking of all — but I’ll tell you what — ” she added, 
as a sudden thought struck her, “I’ll follow it up 
to the very top shelf of all. It’ll puzzle it to go 
through the ceiling, I expect ! ” 

But even this plan failed: “the thing” went 
through the ceiling as quietly as possible, as if it 
were quite used to it. 

“ Are you a child or a teetotum ? ” the Sheep said, 
as she took up another pair of needles. “You’ll 
make me giddy soon, if you go on turning round 
like that.” She was now working with fourteen 
pairs at once, and Alice couldn’t help looking at her 
in great astonishment. 

“How can she knit with so many?” the puzzled 
child thought to herself. “ She gets more and more 
like a porcupine every minute ! ” 

“Can you row? ” the Sheep asked, handing her a 
pair of knitting-needles as she spoke. 


THBOUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 95 


“ Yes, a little — but not on land — and not with 
needles ” Alice was beginning to say, when sud- 

denly the needles turned into oars in her hands, and 
she found they were in a little boat, gliding along 
betw’een banks : so there was nothing for it but to 
do her best. 

“Feather!” cried the Sheep, as she took up an- 
other pair of needles. 

This didn’t sound like a remark that needed any 
answer, so Alice said nothing, but pulled away. 
There was something very queer about the water, 
she thought, as every now and then the oars got 
fast in it, and would hardly come out again. 

“Feather! Feather!” the Sheep cried again, 
taking more needles. “You’ll be catching a crab 
directly.” 

“A dear little crab! ” thought Alice. “I should 
like that.” 

“Didn’t you hear me say ‘ Feather ” the Sheep 
cried angrily, taking up quite a bunch of needles. 

“Indeed I did,” said Alice: “you’ve said it very 
often — and very loud. Please, where are the 
crabs? ” 

“In the water, of course! ” said the Sheep, stick- 
ing some of the needles into her hair, as her hands 
were full. “ Feather, I say ! ” 


96 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


‘‘Why do you say ‘Feather’ so often?” Alice 
asked at last, rather vexed. “I’m not a bird ! ” 

“You are,” said the Sheep: “you’re a little 
goose.” 

This offended Alice a little, so there was no more 
conversation for a minute or two, while the boat 
glided gently on, sometimes among beds of weeds 
(which made the oars stick fast in the water, worse 
than ever), and sometimes under trees, but always 
with the same tall river-banks frowning over their 
heads. 

“ Oh, please ! There are some scented rushes ! ” 
Alice cried in a sudden transport of delight. “ There 
really are — and such beauties ! ” 

“You needn’t say ‘ please ’ to me about ’em,” the 
Sheep said, without looking up from her knitting : 
“I didn’t put ’em there, and I’m not going to take 
’em away.” 

“No, but I meant — please, may we wait and pick 
some?” Alice pleaded. “If you don’t mind stop- 
ping the boat for a minute.” 

“ How am I to stop it? ” said the Sheep. “ If you 
leave off rowing, it’ll stop of itself.” 

So the boat was left to drift down the stream as 
it would, till it glided gently in among the rushes. 
And then the little sleeves were carefully rolled up, 




98 


TEBOUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


and the little arms were plunged in elbow-deep, to 
get hold of the rushes a good long way down before 
breaking them off — and for a while Alice forgot all 
about the Sheep and the knitting, as she bent over 
the side of the boat, with just the ends of her 
tangled hair dipping into the water — while with 
bright eager eyes she caught at one bunch after an- 
other of the darling scented rushes. 

‘‘I only hope the boat won’t tipple over!” she 
said to herself. “ Oh, what a lovely one ! Only I 
couldn’t quite reach it.” And it certainly did seem 
a little provoking (‘‘almost as if it happened on pur- 
pose,” she thought) that, though she managed to 
pick plenty of beautiful rushes as the boat glided 
by, there was always a more lovely one that she 
couldn’t reach. 

“ The prettiest are always further!” she said at 
last, with a sigh at the obstinacy of the rushes in 
growing so far off, as with flushed cheeks and drip- 
ping hair and hands, she scrambled back into her 
place, and began to arrange her new-found treasures. 

What mattered it to her just then that the rushes 
had begun to fade, and to lose all their scent and 
beauty, from the very moment that she picked 
them? Even real scented rushes, you know, last 
only a very little while — and these, being dream- 


u »f a 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 99 


rushes, melted away almost like snow, as they lay in 
heaps at her feet — but Alice hardly noticed this, 
there were so many other curious things to think 
about. 

They hadn’t gone much farther before the blade 
of one of the oars got fast in the water and wouldn’t 
come out again (so Alice explained it afterwards), 
and the consequence was that the handle of it caught 
her under the chin, and, in spite of a series of shrieks 
of “ Oh, oh, oh ! ” from poor Alice, it swept her 
straight off the seat, and down among the heap of 
rushes. 

However, she wasn’t a bit hurt, and was soon up 
again : the Sheep went on with her knitting all the 
while, just as if nothing had happened. “That 
was a nice crab you caught!” she remarked, as 
Alice got back into her place, very much relieved 
to find herself still in the boat. 

“Was it? I didn’t see it,” said Alice, peeping 
cautiously over the side of the boat into the dark 
water. “I wish it hadn’t let go — I should so like a 
little crab to take home with me ! ” But the sheep 
only laughed scornfully, and went on with her 
knitting. 

“Are there many crabs here? ” said Alice. 

“Crabs, and all sorts of things,” said the Sheep: 


100 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


“plenty of choice, only make up your mind. Now, 
what do you want to buy? ” 

“To buy,’’ Alice echoed in a tone that was half 
astonished and half frightened — for the oars, and 
the boat, and the river, had vanished all in a mo- 
ment, and she was back again in the little dark 
shop. 

“I should like to buy an egg, please,” she said 
timidly. “ How do you sell them? ” 

“Fivepence farthing for one — twopence for two,” 
the Sheep replied. 

“Then two are cheaper than one? ” Alice said in 
a surprised tone, taking out her purse. 

“Only you must eat them both, if you buy two,” 
said the Sheep. 

“Then I’ll have one, please,” said Alice, as she 
put the money down on the counter. For she 
thought to herself, “ They mightn’t be at all nice, 
you know.” 

The Sheep took the money, and put it away in a 
box: then she said: “I never put things into peo- 
ple’s hands — that would never do — you must get it 
for yourself.” And so saying, she went oif to the 
other end of the shop, and set the egg upright on a 
shelf. 

“I wonder why it wouldn’t do? ” thought Alice, 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 101 


as she groped her way among the tables and 
chairs, for the shop was very dark towards the end. 
“The egg seems to get further away the more I 
walk towards it. Let me see, is this a chair? 
Why it’s got branches, I declare! How very odd 
to find trees growing here! And actually here’s a 
little brook! Well, this is the very queerest shop 
I ever saw ! ” 

****** 

***** 

****** 

So she went on, wondering more and more at 
every step, as everything turned into a tree the 
moment she came up to it, and she quite expected 
the egg to do the same. 


CHAPTER VI. 

HUMPTY DUMPTY, 

However, the egg only got larger and larger? 
and more and more human: when she had come 
within a few yards of it, she saw that it had eyes 
and a nose and mouth ; and when she had come 


102 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


close to it, she saw clearly that it was HUMPTY 
DUMPTY himself. “It can’t he anybody else!” 
she said to herself. “I’m certain of it, as if his 
name were written all over his face ! ” 

It might have been written a hundred times, 
easily, on that enormous face. Humpty Dumpty 
was sitting with his legs crossed, like a Turk, on 
the top of a high wall — such a narrow one that Alice 
quite wondered how he could keep his balance — 
and, as his eyes were steadily fixed in the opposite 
direction, and he didn’t take the least notice of her, 
she thought he must be a stuffed figure after all. 

“And how exactly like an egg he is!” she said 
aloud, standing with her hands ready to catch him, 
for she was every moment expecting him to fall. 

“It’s very provoking,” Humpty Dumpty said 
after a long silence, looking away from Alice as he 
spoke, “ to be called an egg — very ! ” 

“I said you looked like an egg. Sir,” Alice gently 
explained. “And some eggs are very pretty, you 
know,” she added, hoping to turn her remark into 
a sort of compliment. 

“Some people,” said Humpty Dumpty, looking 
away from her as usual, “ have no more sense than 
a baby ! ” 

Alice didn’t know what to say to this: it wasn't 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 103 


at all like conversation, she thought, as he never 
said anything to her; in fact, his last remark was 
evidently addressed to a tree — so she stood and 
softly repeated to herself : 

“ Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall : 

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. 

All the King’s horses and all the King’s men 
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty in his place again.” 

‘‘That last line is much too long for the poetry,” 
she added, almost out loud, forgetting that Humpty 
Dumpty would hear her. 

“Don’t stand chattering to yourself like that,” 
Humpty Dumpty said, looking at her for the first 
time, “hut tell me your name and your business.” 

“My name is Alice, but — ” 

“ It’s a stupid name enough ! ” Humpty Dumpty 
interrupted impatiently. “ What does it mean? ” 

“Must a name mean something?” Alice asked 
doubtfully. 

“Of course it must,” Humpty Dumpty said with 
a short laugh: “my name means the shape I am 
— and a good handsome shape it is, too. With a 
name like yours, you might be any shape almost.” 

“ Why do you sit out here all alone? ” said Alice, 
not wishing to begin an argument. 


104 TEBOUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


“Why, because there’s nobody with me!” cried 
Humpty Dumpty. “Did you think I didn’t know 
the answer to that? Ask another.” 

“Don’t you think you’d be safer down on the 
ground?” Alice went on, not with any idea of 
making another riddle, but simply in her good- 
natured anxiety for the queer creature. “That 
wall is so very narrow 1 ” 

“What tremendously easy riddles you ask!” 
Humpty Dumpty growled out. “Of course I don’t 
think so! Why, if ever I did fall off — which 
there’s no chance of — but if I did — ” Here he 
pursed up his lips, and looked so solemn and 
grand that Alice could hardly help laughing. 
“If I did fall,” he went on, “the King has prom- 
ised me — ah, you may turn pale, if you like! 
You didn’t think I was going to say that, did 
you? The King has promised me — with his very 
own mouth — to — to — ” 

“To send all his horses and all his men,” Alice 
interrupted, rather unwisely. 

“Now I declare that’s too bad!” Humpty 
Dumpty cried, breaking into a sudden passion. 
“ Tou’ve been listening at doors — and behind trees 
• — and down chimneys — or you couldn’t have 
known it! ” 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 105 







“I haven’t, indeed!” 
Alice said very gently. 
“It’s in a book.” 

“Ah, well! They may 
write such things in a 
book,” Humpty Dumpty 
said in a calmer tone. 
“That’s what you call a 
History of England, that 
is. Now, take a good 
look at me! I’m one 
that has spoken to a 


106 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


King, I am: mayhap you’ll never see such another: 
and to show you I’m not proud, you may shake 
hands with me ! ” And he grinned almost from ear 
to ear, as he leant forwards (and as nearly as pos- 
sible fell off the wall in doing so) and offered Alice 
his hand. She watched him a little anxiously as 
she took it. “If he smiled much more, the ends of 
his mouth might meet behind,” she thought: “and 
then I don’t know what would happen to his head! 
I’m afraid it would come off! ” 

“Yes, all his horses and all his men,” Humpty 
Dumpty went on. “They’d pick me up again in a 
minute, they would! However, this conversation 
is going on a little too fast: let’s go back to the 
last remark but one.” 

“ I’m afraid I can’t quite remember it,” Alice said 
very politely. 

“In that case we start fresh,” said Humpty 
Dumpty, “and it’s my turn to choose a subject — ” 
(“He talks about it just as if it was a game!” 
thought Alice.) “So here’s a question for you. 
How old did you say you were? ” 

Alice made a short calculation, and said, “Seven 
years and six months.” 

“Wrong!” Humpty Dumpty exclaimed trium- 
phantly. “You never said a word like it! ” 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 107 


“I thought you meant ‘How old are you?’’’ 
Alice explained. 

“If I’d meant that, I’d have said it,” said 
Humpty Dumpty. 

Alice didn’t want to begin another argument, so 
she said nothing. 

“ Seven years and six months ! ” Humpty Dumpty 
repeated thoughtfully. “An uncomfortable sort of 
age. Now if you’d asked my advice, I’d have said, 
‘ Leave off at seven ’ — but it’s too late now.” 

“I never ask advice about growing,” Alice said 
indignantly. 

“Too proud?” the other inquired. 

Alice felt even more indignant at this suggestion. 
“I mean,” she said, “that one can’t help growing 
older.” 

“ One can ’t, perhaps, ” said Humpty Dumpty, “ but 
two can. With proper assistance, you might have 
left off at seven.” 

“What a beautiful belt you’ve got on!” Alice 
suddenly remarked. (They had had quite enough 
of the subject of age, she thought : and if they really 
were to take turns in choosing subjects, it was her 
turn now.) “At least,” she corrected herself on 
second thoughts, “ a beautiful cravat, I should have 
said — no, a belt, I mean — I beg your pardon ! ” she 


108 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


added in dismay, for Hufnpty Dumpty looked thor- 
oughly offended, and she began to wish she hadn’t 
chosen that subject. If only I knew,” she thought 
to herself, “which was neck and which was 
waist ! ” 

Evidently Humpty Dumpty was very angry, 
though he said nothing for a minute or two. 
When he did speak again, it was in a deep growl. 

“It is a — most — provoking — thing,” he said at 
last, “when a person doesn’t know a cravat from a 
belt!” 

“I know it’s very ignorant of me,” Alice said, in 
so humble a tone that Humpty Dumpty relented. 

“It’s a cravat, child, and a beautiful one, as you 
say. It’s a present from the White King and 
Queen. There now! ” 

“Is it really?” said Alice, quite pleased to find 
that she had chosen a good subject, after all. 

“They gave it me,” Humpty Dumpty continued 
thoughtfully, as he crossed one knee over the other 
and clasped his hands round it, “ they gave it me — 
for an un-birthday present.” 

“I beg your pardon?” Alice said with a puzzled 
air. 

“I’m not offended,” said Humpty Dumpty. 

“I mean, whaf is an un-birthday present?” 


THROUGH THE LOOKINGhGLASS. 109 


“A present given when it isn’t your birthday, of 
course.” 

Alice considered a little. “I like birthday, pres- 
ents best,” she said at last. 

“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” 
cried Humpty Dumpty. “ How many days are there 
in a year? ” 

“Three hundred and sixty-five,” said Alice. 

“And how many birthdays have you? ” 

“One.” 

“And if you take one from three hundred and 
sixty-five, what remains?” 

“Three hundred and sixty-four, of course.” 

Humpty Dumpty looked doubtful. “I’d rather 
see that done on paper,” he said. 

Alice couldn’t help smiling as she took out her 
memorandum book, and worked the sum for him : 

365 

1 


364 


Humpty Dumpty took the book, and looked at it 
carefully. “That seems to be done right — ” he 
began. 


110 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


“You’re holding it upside down!” Alice inter- 
rupted. 

“ To be sure I was ! ” Huinpty Dumpty said gaily, 
as she turned it round for him. “I thought it 
looked a little queer. As I was saying, that seems 
to be done right — though I haven’t time to look it 
over thoroughly just now — and that shows that 
there are three hundred and sixty-four days when 
you mighty get un-birthday presents — ” 

“Certainly,” said Alice. 

“And only one for birthday presents, you know. 
“There’s glory for you! ” 

“ I don’t know what you mean by ^ glory, ’ ” Alice 
said. 

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of 
course you don’t — till I tell you. I meant ‘ there’s 
a nice knock-down argument for you ! ’ ” 

“But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘ a nice knock-down 
argument,’ ” Alice objected. 

“ When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in 
rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose 
it to mean — neither more nor less.” 

“The question is,” said Alice, “ whether you can 
make words mean so many different things.” 

“ The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “ which 
is to be master — that’s all.” 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. Ill 


Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so 
after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. 
“They’ve a temper, some of them — particularly 
verbs, they’re the proudest — adjectives you can 
do anything with, but not verbs — however, I can 
manage the whole lot of them ! Impenetrability ! 
That’s what I say ! ” 

“Would you tell me, please,” said Alice, “what 
that means? ” 

“Now you talk like a reasonable child,” said 
Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased, “I 
meant by ‘ impenetrability ’ that we’ve had enough 
of that subject, and it would be just as well if you’d 
mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you 
don’t mean to stop here all the rest of your life.” 

“That’s a great deal to make one word mean,” 
Alice said in a thoughtful tone. 

“ When I make a word do a lot of work like 
that,” said Humpty Dumpty, “I always pay it 
extra.” 

“ Oh ! ” said Alice. She was too much puzzled to 
make any other remark. 

“Ah, you should see ’em come round me of a 
Saturday night,” Humpty Dumpty went on, wag- 
ging his head gravely from side to side : “ for to get 
their wages, you know.” 


112 THROUGH THE LOOKIHG-GLASS. 


(Alice didn’t venture to ask what he paid them 
with; and so you see I can’t tell you.) 

“You seem very clever at explaining words, Sir,” 
said Alice. “ Would you kindly tell me the mean- 
ing of the poem called ‘ Jabberwocky ” 

“Let’s hear it,” said Humpty Dumpty. “I can 
explain all the poems that ever were invented — 
and a good many that haven’t been invented just 
yet.” 

This sounded very hopeful, so Alice repeated the 
first verse ; 

“’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves 
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; 

All mimsy were the borogoves, 

And the mome raths outgrabe.” 

“That’s enough to begin with,” Humpty Dumpty 
interrupted : “ there are plenty of hard words there. 
‘ Brillig ’ means four o’clock in the afternoon — the 
time when you begin broiling things for dinner.” 

“That’ll do very well,” said Alice: “and 
‘slithy’?” 

“Well, ‘ slithy ’ means ‘ lithe and slimy. ’ ‘ Lithe ’ 
is the same as ‘active.’ You see it’s like a port- 
manteau — there are two meanings packed up into 
one word.” 




114 THBOUGE THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


‘‘I see it now,” Alice remarked thoughtfully: 
“ and what are ‘ toves ’ ? ” 

“Well, ‘toves’ are something like badgers — 
they’re something like Lizards — and they’re some- 
thing like corkscrews.” 

“They must be very curious-looking creatures.” 

“They are that,” said Humpty Dumpty, “also 
they make their nests under sun-dials — also they 
live on cheese.” 

“And what’s to ‘ gyre ’ and to ‘ gimble ’? ” 

“ To ‘ gyre ’ is to go round and round like a gyro- 
scope. To ‘ gimble ’ is to make holes like a gimb- 
let.” 

“And ‘ the wabe ’ is the grass-plot round a sun- 
dial, I suppose?” said Alice, surprised at her own 
ingenuity. 

“Of course it is. It’s called ‘ wabe,’ you know, 
because it goes a long way before it, and a long way 
behind it — ” 

“And a long way beyond it on each side,” Alice 
added. 

“ Exactly so. Well then, ‘ mimsy ’ is ‘ flimsy and 
miserable ’ (there’s another portmanteau for you). 
And a ‘ borogove ’ is a thin shabby-looking bird 
with its feathers sticking out all around — some- 
thing like a live mop.” 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 115 


“And then ‘ mome raths’?” said Alice. “I'm 
afraid I’m giving you a great deal of trouble.” 

“Well, a ‘rath’ is a sort of green pig: hut 
‘ mome ’ I’m not certain about. I think it’s short 
for ‘ from home ’ — meaning that they’d lost their 
way, you know.” 

“And what does ‘ outgrabe ’ mean? ” 

“Well, ‘ outgribing ’ is something between bel- 
lowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the 
middle : however, you’ll hear it done, maybe — down 
in the wood yonder — and when you’ve once heard 
it you’ll be quite content. Who’s been repeating 
all that hard stuff to you?” 

“I read it in a book,” said Alice. “But I had 
some poetry repeated to me, much easier than that, 
by — Tweedledee, I think it was.” 

“As to poetry, you know,” said Humpty Dumpty, 
stretching out one of his great hands, “I can re- 
peat poetry as well as other folk, if it comes to 
that — ” 

“ Oh, it needn’t come to that ! ” Alice hastily said, 
hoping to keep him from beginning. 

“The piece I’m going to repeat,” he went on with- 
out noticing her remark, “was written entirely for 
your amusement.” 

Alice felt that in that case she really ought to 


116 THROUGH TEE LOOKING-GLASS. 


listen to it, so she sat down, and said “ Thank you ” 
rather sadly. 

“ In winter, when the fields are white, 

I sing this song for your delight — 

only I don’t sing it,” he added, as an explanation. 
“I see you don’t,” said Alice. 

‘‘If you can see whether I’m singing or not, 
you’ve sharper eyes than most,” Humpty Dumpty 
remarked severely. Alice was silent. 

“ In spring, when woods are getting green, 

1^11 try and tell you what I mean.” 

“Thank you very much,” said Alice. 

“ In summer, when the days are long, 

Perhaps you’ll understand the song: 

“ In autumn, when the leaves are brown, 

Take pen and ink, and write it down.” 

“I will, if I can remember it so long,” said Alice. 
“You needn’t go on making remarks like that,” 
Humpty Dumpty said: “they’re not sensible, and 
they put me out. ” 

“ I sent a message to the fish : 

I told them ‘ This is what I wish.' 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 117 


The little fishes of the sea, 

They sent an answer back to me. 

“ The little fishes’ answer was, 

' We cannot do it, Sir, because ’ ” 



“I’m afraid I don’t quite understand,” said Alice. 
“It gets easier further on,” Humpty Dumpty re- 
plied. 


118 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


“ T sent to them again to say, 

‘ It will be better to obey.^ 

“ The fishes answered with a grin, 

‘ Why, what a temper you are in ! ’ 

“ 1 told them once, I told them twice ; 

They would not listen to advice. 

“ I took a kettle large and new. 

Tit for the deed I had to do. 

“ My heart went hop, my heart went thump ; 

I filled the kettle at the pump. 

Then some one came to me and said, 

‘ The little fishes are in bed.’ 

I said to him, I said it plain, 

‘ Then you must wake them up again. ’ 

“I said it very loud and clear; 

I went and shouted in his ear.” 

Humpty Dumpty raised his voice almost to a 
scream as he repeated this verse, and Alice thought 
with a shudder, “I wouldn’t have been the mes- 
senger for anything! ” 

“ But he was very stiff and proud ; 

He said, ‘ You needn’t shout so loud! ’ 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 119 


“ And lie was very proud and stiff ; 

He said, ‘ I’d go and wake them, if — ’ 

“ I took a corkscrew from the shelf ; 

I went to wake them up myself. 

“ And when I found the door was locked, 

I pulled and pushed and kicked and knocked. 

And when I found the door was shut, | 

I tried to turn the handle, but — ” \ 

i 

There was a long pause. ' 

“Is that all? ” Alice timidly asked. 

“That’s all,” said Humpty Dumpty. “Good- 
bye. ” 

This was rather sudden, Alice thought : but, after 
such a very strong hint that she ought to be going, 
she felt that it would hardly be civil to stay. So 
she got up, and held out her hand “Good-bye, till 
we meet again ! ” she said as cheerfully as she 
could. 

“I shouldn’t know you again if we did meet,” 
Humpty Dumpty replied in a discontented tone, 
giving her one of his fingers to shake; “you’re so 
exactly like other people.” 

“The face is what one goes by, generally,” Alice 
remarked in a thoughtful tone. 


120 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


“That’s just what I complain of,” said Humpty 
Dumpty. “ Tour face is the same as everybody 
has — the two eyes, so — ” (marking their places in 
the air with his thumb) “nose in the middle, mouth 
under. It’s always the same. Now if you had the 
two eyes on the same side of the nose, for instance 
— or the mouth at the top — that would be some 
help.” 

“It wouldn’t look nice,” Alice objected. But 
Humpty Dumpty only shut his eyes and said, 
“ Wait; till you’ve tried.” 

Alice waited a minute to see if he would speak 
again, but as he never opened his eyes or took any 
further notice of her, she said “Good-bye!” once 
more, and, getting no answer to this, she quietly 
walked away: but she couldn’t help saying to her- 
self as she went, “ Of all the unsatisfactory — ” (she 
repeated this aloud, as it was a great comfort to 
have such a long word to say) “of all the unsatis- 
factory people I ever met — ” She never finished 
the sentence, for at this moment a heavy crash 
shook the forest from end to end. 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 121 


CHAPTER VII. 

THE LION AND THE UNICORN. 

The next moment soldiers came running through 
the wood, at first in twos and threes, then ten or 
twenty together, and at last in such crowds that 
they seemed to fill the whole forest. Alice got be- 
hind a tree, for fear of being run over, and watched 
them go by. 

She thought that in all her life she had never seen 
soldiers so uncertain on their feet: they were al- 
ways tripping over something or other, and when- 
ever one went down, several more always fell over 
him, so that the ground was soon covered with 
little heaps of men. 

Then came the horses. Having four feet, these 
managed rather better than the foot-soldiers: but 
even they stumbled now and then; and it seemed 
to be a regular rule that, whenever a horse stumbled, 
the rider fell off instantly. The confusion got worse 
every moment, and Alice was very glad to get out 
of the wood into an open place, where she found 
the White King seated on the ground, busily writ- 
ing in his memorandum-book. 


122 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


“I’ve sent them all ! ” the King cried in a tone of 
delight, on seeing Alice. “ Did you happen to meet 
any soldiers, my dear, as you came through the 
wood? ” 

“Yes, I did,” said Alice: “several thousand, I 
should think.” 

“Four thousand two hundred and seven, that’s 
the exact number,” the King said, referring to his 
book. “I couldn’t send all the horses, you know, 
because two of them are wanted in the game. And 
I haven’t sent the two Messengers, either. They’re 
both gone to the town. Just look along the road, 
and tell me if you can see either of them.” 

“I see nobody on the road,” said Alice. 

“I only wish I had such eyes,” the King remarked 
in a fretful tone. “ To be able to see Nobody ! And 
at that distance too! Why, it’s as much as I can 
do to see real people, by this light I ” 

All this was lost on Alice, who was still looking 
intently along the road, shading her eyes with one 
hand. “I see somebody now ! ’^ she exclaimed at 
last. “But he’s coming very slowly — and what 
curious attitudes he goes into!” (For the Mes- 
senger kept skipping up and down, and wriggling 
like an eel, as he came along, with his great hands 
spread out like fans on each side.) 


THBOUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 123 


“Not at all,” said the King. “He’s an Anglo- 
Saxon Messenger — and those are Anglo-Saxon atti- 
tudes. He only does them when he’s happy. His 
name is Haigha. ” (He pronounced it so as to rhyme 
with “mayor.”) 

“I love my love with an H,” Alice couldn’t help 
beginning, “ because he is Happy. I hate him with 
an H, because he is Hideous. I fed him with — 
with — with Ham sandwiches and Hay. His name 
is Haigha, and he lives — ” 

“ He lives on the Hill,” the King remarked simply, 
without the least idea that he was joining in the 
game, while Alice was still hesitating for the name 
of a town beginning with H. “The other Mes- 
senger’s called Hatta. I must have two, you 
know — to come and go. One to come, and one 
to go.” 

“I beg your pardon? ” said Alice. 

“It isn’t respectable to beg,” said the King. 

“I only meant that I didn’t understand,” said 
Alice. “ Why one to come and one to go? ” 

“Don’t I tell you?” the King repeated impa- 
tiently. “I must have two — to fetch and carry. 
One to fetch, and one to carry.” 

At this moment the Messenger arrived: he was 
far too much out of breath to say a word, and could 


124 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


only wave his hands about, and make the most 
fearful faces at the poor King. 

“This young lady loves you with an H,” the 
King said, introducing Alice in the hope of turning 
off the Messenger’s attention from himself — but it 
was no use — the Anglo-Saxon attitudes only got 
more extraordinary every moment, while the great 
eyes rolled wildly from side to side. 

“You alarm me!” said the King. “I feel faint 
— Give me a ham sandwich I ” 

On which the Messenger, to Alice’s great amuse- 
ment, opened a bag that hung round his neck, and 
handed a sandwich to the King, who devoured it 
greedily. 

“Another sandwich! ” said the King. 

“There’s nothing but hay left now,” the Mes- 
senger said, peeping into the hag. 

“Hay, then,” the King murmured in a faint 
whisper. 

Alice was glad to see that it revived him a good 
deal. “There’s nothing like eating hay when 
you’re faint,” he remarked to her, as he munched 
away. 

“I should think throwing cold water over you 
would be better,” Alice suggested: “ — or some sal- 
volatile.” 



126 TEBOUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


“I didn’t say there was nothing better,” the King 
replied. “I said there was nothing like it.” Which 
Alice did not venture to deny. 

‘‘Who did you pass on the road? ” the King went 
on, holding out his hand to the Messenger for some 
more hay. 

“Nobody,” said the Messenger. 

“Quite right,” said the King: “this young lady 
saw him too. So of course Nobody walks slower 
than you.” 

“I do my best,” the Messenger said in a sullen 
tone. “I’m sure nobody walks much faster than I 
do!” 

“He can’t do that,” said the King, “or else he’d 
have been here first. However, now you’ve got 
your breath, you may tell us what’s happened in 
the town.” 

“I’ll whisper it,” said the Messenger, putting his 
hands to his mouth in the shape of a trumpet and 
stooping so as to get close to the King’s ear. Alice 
was sorry for this, as she wanted to hear the news 
too. However, instead of whispering, he simply 
shouted at the top of his voice, “They’re at it 
again ! ” 

“Do you call that a whisper?” cried the poor 
King, jumping up and shaking himself. “If you 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 127 


do such a thing again, I’ll have you buttered ! It 
went through and through my head like an earth- 
quake ! ” 

“It would have to be a very tiny earthquake!” 
thought Alice. “Who are at it again?” she ven- 
tured to ask. 

“ Why, the Lion and the Unicorn, of course,” said 
the King. 

“Fighting for the crown? ” 

“Yes, to be sure,” said the King: “and the best 
of the joke is, that it’s my crown all the while! 
Let’s run and see them.” And they trotted off, 
Alice repeating to herself, as she ran, the words of 
the old song : 

“The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the crown : 

The Lion beat the Unicorn all round the town. 

Some gave them white bread, some gave them brown ; 

Some gave them plum-cake and drummed them out of town.” 

“Does — the one — that wins — get the crown?” 
she asked, as well as she could, for the run was 
putting her quite out of breath. 

“Dear me, no!” said the King. “What an 
idea! ” 

“ Would you — be good enough,” Alice panted out, 
after running a little further, “to stop a minute — 
just to get — one’s breath again?” 


128 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 



good enough,” the King said, ‘‘only I’m not 
strong enough. You see, a minute goes by so fear- 
fully quick. You might as well try to stop a Ban- 
dersnatch ! ” 

Alice had no more breath for talking, so they 
trotted on in silence, till they come in sight of a 
great crowd, in the middle of which the Lion and 
Unicorn were fighting. They were in such a cloud 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 129 


of dust, that at first Alice could not make out which 
was which: but she soon managed to distinguish 
the Unicorn by his horn. 

They placed themselves close to where Hatta, the 
other Messenger, was standing watching the fight, 
with a cup of tea in one hand and a piece of bread- 
and-butter in the other. 



9 


130 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


‘‘He’s only just out of prison, and he hadn’t 
finished his tea when he was sent in,” Haigha 
whispered to Alice: “and they only give them 
oyster-shells in there — so you see he’s very hun- 
gry and thirsty. How are you, dear child?” he 
went on, putting his arm affectionately round 
Hatta’s neck. 

Hatta looked round and nodded, and went on 
with his bread-and-butter. 

“Were you happy in prison, dear child?” said 
Haigha. 

Hatta looked round once more, and this time a 
tear or two trickled down his cheek ; but not a word 
would he say. 

“Speak, can’t you!” Haigha cried impatiently. 
But Hatta only munched away, and drank some 
more tea. 

“Speak, won’t you!” cried the King. “How 
are they getting on with the fight? ” 

Hatta made a desperate effort, and swallowed 
a large piece of bread-and-butter. “They’re get- 
ting on very well,” he said in a choking voice: 
“each of them has been down about eighty-seven 
times.” 

“Then I suppose they’ll soon bring the white 
bread and the brown?” Alice ventured to remark. 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 131 


“It’s waiting for ’em now,” said Hatta: “this is 
a bit of it as I’m eating.” 

There was a pause in the fight just then, and the 
Lion and the Unicorn sat down, panting, while 
the King called out, “Ten minutes allowed for re- 
freshments ! ” Haigha and Hatta set to work at 
once, carrying round trays of white and brown 
bread. Alice took a piece to taste, but it was very 
dry. 

“I don’t think they’ll fight any more to-day,” 
the King said to Hatta: “go and order the drums 
to begin.” And Hatta went bounding away like a 
grasshopper. For a minute or two Alice stood 
silent, watching him. Suddenly she brightened 
up. “Look, look!” she cried, pointing eagerly. 
“There’s the White Queen running across the coun- 
try I She came flying out of the wood over yonder 
— How fast those Queens can run ! ” 

“There’s some enemy after her, no doubt,” the 
King said, without even looking round. “That 
wood’s full of them.” 

“But aren’t you going to run and help her?” 
Alice asked, very much surprised at his taking it so 
quietly. 

“No use, no use! ” said the King. “She runs so 
fearfully quick. You might as well try to catch a 


132 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


Bandersnatch ! But I’ll make a memorandum 
about her, if you like — She’s a dear good creature,” 
he repeated softly to himself, as he opened his 
memorandum book. Do you spell ‘ creature ’ with 
a double ‘ e ” 

At this moment the Unicorn sauntered by them, 
with his hands in his pockets. “I had the best of 
it this time? ” he said to the King, just glancing at 
him as he passed. 

‘‘A little — a little,” the King replied, rather 
nervously. “ You shouldn’t have run him through 
with your horn, you know.” 

‘‘It didn’t hurt him,” the Unicorn said carelessly, 
and he was going on, when his eye happened to fall 
ujjon Alice: he turned round instantly, and stood 
for some time looking at her with an air of the 
deepest disgust. 

“ What — is — this? ” he said at last. 

“This is a child! ” Haigha replied eagerly, com- 
ing in front of Alice to introduce her, and spread- 
ing out both his hands towards her in an Anglo- 
Saxon attitude. “We only found it to-day. It’s 
as large as life, and twice as natural 1 ” 

“ I always thought they were fabulous monsters ! ” 
said the Unicorn. “Is it alive? ” 

“It can talk,” said Haigha, solemnly. 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 133 


The Unicorn looked dreamily at Alice, and said, 
‘‘Talk, child.” 

Alice could not help her lips curling up into a 
smile as she began: “Do you know, I always 



thought Unicorns were fabulous monsters, too! I 
never saw one alive before! ” 

“ Well, now that we have seen each other,” said 
the Unicorn, “if you’ll believe in me, I'll believe in 
you. Is that a bargain?” 


134 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


‘‘Yes, if you like,” said Alice. 

“Come, fetch out the plum-cake, old man!” the 
Unicorn went on, turning from her to the King. 
“None of your brown bread for me! ” 

“Certainly — certainly!” the King muttered, and 
beckoned to Haigha. “Open the bag!” he whis- 
pered. “Quick! Not that one — that’s full of 
hay ! ” 

Haigha took a large cake out of the bag, and 
gave it to Alice to hold, while he got out a dish 
and carving knife. How they all came out of it 
Alice couldn’t guess. It was just like a conjuring- 
trick, she thought. 

The Lion had joined them while this was going 
on: he looked very tired and sleepy, and his eyes 
were half shut. “ What’s this! ” he said, blinking 
lazily at Alice, and speaking in a deep hollow tone 
that sounded like the tolling of a great bell. 

“Ah, what is it, now?” the Unicorn cried 
eagerly. “You’ll never guess ! I couldn’t.” 

The Lion looked at Alice wearily. “Are you 
animal — or vegetable — or mineral ? ” he said, yawn- 
ing at every other word. 

“ It’s a fabulous monster ! ” the Unicorn cried out, 
before Alice could reply. 

“Then hand round the plum-cake, Monster,” the 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 135 


Lion said, lying down and putting his chin on his 
paws. “And sit down, both of you,” (to the King 
and the Unicorn): “fair play with the cake, you 
know ! ” 

The King was evidently very uncomfortable at 
having to sit down between the two great creatures;^ 
but there was no other place for him. 

“ What a fight we might have for the crown, 
now!” the Unicorn said, looking slyly up at the 
crown, which the poor King was nearly shaking off 
his head, he trembled so much. 

“I should win easy,” said the Lion. 

“I’m not so sure of that,” said the Unicorn. 

“ Why, I beat you all round the town, you 
chicken! ” the Lion replied angrily, half getting up 
as he spoke. 

Here the King interrupted, to prevent the quar- 
rel going on : he was very nervous, and his voice 
quite quivered. “All round the town?” he said. 
“That’s a good long way. Did you go by the old 
bridge, or the market-place? You get the best 
view by the old bridge.” 

“I’m sure I don’t know,” the Lion growled out 
as he lay down again. “There was too much dust 
to see anything; What a time the Monster is, cut- 
ting up that cake ! ” 


136 THBOUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


Alice had seated herself on the hank of a little 
brook, with the great dish on her knees, and was 
sawing away diligently with the knife. “It’s very 
provoking! ” she said, in reply to the Lion (she was 
getting quite used to being called ‘the Monster’). 
.“I’ve cut several slices already, but they always 
join on again 1 ” 

“You don’t know how to manage Looking-glass 
cakes,” the Unicorn remarked. “Hand it round 
first, and cut it afterwards.” 

This sounded nonsense, but Alice very obediently 
got up, and carried the dish round, and the cake 
divided itself into three pieces as she did so. “ Now 
cut it up,” said the Lion, as she returned to her 
place with the empty dish. 

“I say, this isn’t fair!” cried the Unicorn, as 
Alice sat with the knife in her hand, very much 
puzzled how to begin. “The Monster has given 
the Lion twice as much as me ! ” 

“She’s kept none for herself, anyhow,” said the 
Lion. “Do you like plum-cake. Monster? ” 

But before Alice could answer him, the drums 
began. 

Where the noise came from she couldn’t make 
out: the air seemed full of it, and it rang through 
and through her head till she felt quite deafened. 



138 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


She started to her feet and sprang across the little 
brook in terror, 

***** 

* * * * 
***** 

and had just time to see the Lion and the Unicorn 
rise to their feet, with angry looks at being inter- 
rupted in their feast, before she dropped to her 
knees, and put her hands over her ears, vainly try- 
ing to shut out the dreadful uproar. 

“If that doesn’t ^ drum them out of town,’ ” she 
thought to herself, “nothing ever will! ” 


CHAPTEE VIII. 

"it’s my own invention.” 

After a while the noise seemed gradually to die 
away, till all was dead silence, and Alice lifted up 
her head in some alarm. There was no one to he 
seen, and her first thought was that she must have 
been dreaming about the Lion and the Unicorn and 
those queer Anglo-Saxon Messengers. However, 
there was the great dish still lying at her feet, on 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 139 


which she had tried to cut the plum-cake. ‘‘So I 
wasn’t dreaming, after all,” she said to herself, 
“unless — unless we’re all part of the same dream. 
Only I do hope it’s my dream, and not the Eed 
King’s! I don’t like belonging to another person’s 
dream,” she went on in a rather complaining tone: 
“I’ve a great mind to go and wake him, and see 
what happens 1 ” 

At this moment her thoughts were interrupted 
by a loud shouting of “Ahoy! Ahoy! Check!” 
and a Knight dressed in crimson armor came gal- 
loping down upon her, brandishing a great club. 
Just as he reached her, the horse stopped suddenly: 
“You’re my prisoner!” the Knight cried, as he 
tumbled off his horse. 

Startled as she was, Alice was more frightened 
for him than for herself at the moment, and 
watched him with some anxiety as he mounted 
again. As soon as he was comfortably in the 
saddle, he began once more, “You’re my — ” hut 
here another voice broke in, “Ahoy! Ahoy! 
Check!” and Alice looked round in some surprise 
for the new enemy. 

This time it was a White Knight. He drew up 
at Alice’s side, and tumbled off his horse just as the 
Eed Knight had done: then he got on again, and 


140 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


the two Knights sat and looked at each other for 
some time without speaking. Alice looked from 
one to the other in some bewilderment. 

“ She’s my prisoner, you know ! ” the Ked Knight 
said at last. 

“Yes, but then I came and rescued her!” the 
White Knight replied. 

“Well, we must fight for her, then,” said the 
Red Knight, as he took up his helmet (which hung 
from the saddle, and was something the shape of a 
horse’s head), and put it on. 

“You will observe the rules of Battle, of course? ” 
the White Knight remarked, putting on his helmet 
too. 

“I always do,” said the Red Knight, and they 
began banging away at each other with such fury 
that Alice got behind a tree to be out of the way of 
the blows. 

“I wonder, now, what the rules of Battle are,” 
she said to herself, as she watched the fight, timidly 
peeping out from her hiding-place : “ One Rule seems 
to be, that if one Knight hits the other, he knocks 
him off his horse, and if he misses, he tumbles off 
himself — and another Rule seems to be that they 
hold their clubs with their arms, as if they were 
Punch and Judy — What a noise they make when 



142 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


they tumble! Just like a whole set of fire-irous 
falling into the fender ! And how quiet the horses 
are! They let them get on and off them just as if 
they were tables ! ” 

Another Eule of Battle, that Alice had not noticed, 
seemed to he that they always fell on their heads, 
and the battle ended with their both falling off in 
this way, side by side: when they got up again, 
they shook hands, and then the Eed Knight 
mounted and galloped off. 

“It was a glorious victory, w’asn’t it?” said the 
White Knight, as he came up panting. 

“I don’t know,” Alice said doubtfully. “I don’t 
want to be anybody’s prisoner. I want to be a 
Queen.” 

“So you will when you’ve crossed the next brook,” 
said the White Knight. “I’ll see you safe to the 
end of the wood — and then I must go back, you 
know. That’s the end of my move.” 

“Thank you very much,” said Alice. “May I 
help you off with your helmet? ” It was evidently 
more than he could manage by himself; however 
she managed to shake him out of it at last. 

“Now one can breathe more easily,” said the 
Knight, putting back his shaggy hair with both 
hands, and turning his gentle face and large mild 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 143 


eyes to Alice. She thought she had never seen 
such a strange-looking soldier in all her life. 

He was dressed in tin armor, which seemed to 
fit him very badly, and he had a queer-shaped little 
deal box fastened across his shoulders, upside-down, 
and with the lid hanging open. Alice looked at it 
with great curiosity. 

“ I see you’re admiring my little box,” the Knight 
said in a friendly tone. “It’s my own invention— 
to keep clothes and sandwiches in. You see I carry 
it upside down, so that the rain can’t get in.” 

“But the things can get out,” Alice gently re- 
marked. “Do 3’ou know the lid’s open?” 

“I didn’t know it,” the Knight said, a shade of 
vexation passing over his face. “Then all the 
things must have fallen out! And the box is no 
use without them.” He unfastened it as he spoke, 
and was just going to throw it into the bushes, when 
a sudden thought seemed to strike him, and he 
hung it carefully on a tree. “Can you guess why I 
did that?” he said to Alice. 

Alice shook her head. 

“In hopes some bees may make a nest in it — then 
I should get the honey.” 

“But you’ve got a bee-hive — or something like 
one — fastened to the saddle,” said Alice. 


144 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


‘‘Yes, it’s a very good bee-hive,” the Knight said 
in a discontented tone, “one of the best kind. But 
not a single bee has come near it yet. And the 
other thing is a mouse-trap. I suppose the mice 
keep the bees out — or the bees keep the mice out, I 
don’t know which.” 

“I was wondering what the mouse-trap was for,” 
said Alice. “It isn’t very likely there would be any 
mice on the horse’s back.” 

“Not very likely, perhaps,” said the Knight; 
“but, if they do come, I don’t choose to have them 
running all about.” 

“ You see,” he went on after a pause, “ it’s as well 
to be provided for everything. That’s the reason 
the horse has all those anklets round his feet.” 

“But what are they for?” Alice asked in a tone 
of great curiosity. 

“ To guard against the bites of sharks, ” the Knight 
replied. “It’s an invention of my own. And now 
help me on. I’ll go with you to the end of the 
wood — What’s that dish for? ” 

“It’s meant for plum-cake,” said Alice. 

“We’d better take it with us,” the Knight said. 
“It’ll come in handy if we find any plum-cake. 
Help me to get it into this bag.” 

This took a long time to manage, though Alice 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 145 


held the bag open very carefully, because the Knight 
was so very awkward in putting in the dish : the 
first two or three times that he tried he fell in him- 
self instead. “It’s rather a. tight fit, you see,” he 
said, as they got it in at last ; “ there are so many 
candlesticks in the bag.” And he hung it to the 
saddle, which was already loaded with bunches of 
carrots, and fire-irons, and many other things. 

“I hope you’ve got your hair well fastened on?” 
he continued, as they set off. 

“Only in the usual way,” Alice said, smiling. 

“That’s hardly enough,” he said, anxiously. 
“You see the wind is so very strong here. It’s as 
strong as soup.” 

“ Have you invented a plan for keeping the hair 
from being blown off? ” Alice inquired. 

“Not yet,” said the Knight. “But I’ve got a 
plan for keeping it from falling off.” 

“I should like to hear it, very much.” 

“First you take an upright stick,” said the 
Knight. “Then you make your hair creep up it, 
like a fruit tree. Now the reason hair falls off is 
because it hangs down— things never fall upwards, 
you know. It’s a plan of my own invention. You 
may try it if you like.” 

It didn’t sound a comfortable plan, Alice thought, 

10 


146 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


and for a few nainutes she walked on in silence, 
puzzling over the idea, and every now and then 
stopping to help the the poor Knight, who certainly 
was not a good rider. 

Whenever the horse stopped (which it did very 
often), he fell off in front; and whenever it went on 
again (which it generally did rather suddenly), he 
fell off behind. Otherwise he kept on pretty well, 
except that he had a habit of now and then falling 
off sideways; and as he generally did this on the 
side on which Alice was walking, she soon found 
that it was the best plan not to walk quite close to 
the horse. 

“I’m afraid you’ve not had much practice in rid- 
ing,” she ventured to say, as she was helping him 
up from his fifth tumble. 

The Knight looked very much surprised, and a 
little offended at the remark. “ What makes you 
say that?” he asked, as he scrambled back into the 
saddle, keeping hold of Alice’s hair with one hand, 
to save himself from falling over on the other side. 

“Because people don’t fall off quite so often, 
when they’ve had much practice.” 

“I’ve had plenty of practice,” the Knight said 
very gravely: “plenty of practice! ” 

Alice could think of nothing better to say than 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 147 


‘‘Indeed? ” but she said it as heartily as she could. 
They went on a little way in silence after this, the 
Knight with his eyes shut, muttering to himself, 
and Alice w’atching anxiously for the next tumble. 

“The great art of riding,” the Knight suddenly 
began in a loud voice, waving his right arm as he 
spoke, “is to keep — ” Here the sentence ended as 
suddenly as it had begun, as the knight fell heavily 
on the top of his head exactly in the path where 
Alice was walking. She was quite frightened this 
time, and said in an anxious tone, as she picked 
him up, “I hope no bones are broken? ” 

“None to speak of,” the Knight said, as if he 
didn’t mind breaking two or three of them. “The 
great art of riding, as I was saying, is — to keep 
your balance properly. Like this, you know — ” 

He let go the bridle, and stretched out both his 
arms to show Alice what he meant, and this time 
he fell flat on his back, right under the horse’s 
feet. 

“Plenty of practice!” he went on repeating, all 
the time that Alice was getting him on his feet 
again. “Plenty of practice! ” 

“It’s too ridiculous!” cried Alice, losing all her 
patience this time. “ You ought to have a wooden 
horse on wheels, that you ought! ” 


148 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


“ Does 1;hafc kind go smoothly? ” the Knight asked 
in a tone of great interest, clasping his arms round 
the horse’s neck as he spoke, just in time to save 
himself from tumbling off again. 

“Much more smoothly than a live horse,” Alice 
said, with a little scream of laughter, in spite of all 
she could do to prevent it. 

“I’ll get one,” the Knight said thoughtfully to 
himself. “ One or two — several.” 

There was a short silence after this, and then the 
Knight went on again. “I’m a great hand at in- 
venting things. Now, I daresay you noticed, the 
last time you picked me up, that I was looking 
rather thoughtful? ” 

“You were a little grave,” said Alice. 

“ Well, just then I was inventing a new way of 
getting over a gate — would you like to hear it? ” 
“Very much indeed,” Alice said politely. 

“I’ll tell you how I came to think of it,” said the 
Knight. “You see, I said to myself, ‘The only 
difficulty is with the feet : the head is high enough 
already. ’ Now, first I put my head on the top of 
the gate — then the head’s high enough — then I 
stand on my head — then the feet are high enough, 
you see— then I’m over, you see.” 

“Yes, I suppose you’d he over when that was 




150 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


done,” Alice said thoughtfully: ‘‘but don’t you 
think it would be rather hard? ” 

“ I haven’t tried it yet,” the Knight said, gravel}^ 
“so I can’t tell for certain — but I’m afraid it would 
be a little hard.” 

He looked so vexed at the idea, that Alice changed 
the subject hastily. “ What a curious helmet you’ve 
got ! ” she said cheerfully. “ Is that your invention 
too?” 

The Knight looked down proudly at his helmet, 
which hung from the saddle. “Yes,” ho said, 
“but I’ve invented a better one than that — like a 
sugar-loaf. When I used to wear it, if I fell off of 
the horse, it always touched the ground directly. 
So I had a very little way to fall, you see — But 
there was the danger of falling into it, to be sure. 
That happened to me once — and the worst of it was, 
before I could get out again, the other White Knight 
came and put it on. He thought it was his own 
helmet.” 

The Knight looked so solemn about it that Alice 
did not dare to laugh. “I’m afraid you must have 
hurt him,” she said in a trembling voice, “being on 
the top of his head.” 

“I had to kick him, of course,” the Knight said, 
very seriously. “ And then he took the helmet off 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 151 


again — but it took hours and hours to get me out. 
I was fast as — as lightning, you know.” 

‘‘But that’s a different kind of fastness,” Alice 
objected. 

The Knight shook his head. “ It was all kinds of 
fastness with me, I can assure you ! ” he said. He 
raised his hands in some excitement as he said this, 
and instantly rolled out of the saddle, and fell head- 
long into a deep ditch. 

Alice ran to the side of the ditch to look for him. 
She was rather startled by the fall, as for some time 
he had kept on very well, and she was afraid that 
he really was hurt this time. However, though she 
could see nothing but the soles of his feet, she was 
much relieved to hear that he was talking on in his 
usual tone. “All kinds of fastness,” he repeated: 
“but it was careless of him to put another man’s 
helmet on — with the man in it, too.” 

“How can you go on talking so quietly, head 
downwards?” Alice asked, as she dragged him out 
by the feet, and laid him in a heap on the bank. 

The Knight looked surprised at the question. 
“ What does it matter where my body happens to 
be?” he said. “My mind goes on working all the 
same. In fact, the more head downwards I am, 
the more I keep inventing new things.” 


152 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


“ Now the cleverest thing of the sort that I ever 
did,’’ he went on after a pause, ‘‘was inventing a 
new pudding during the meat-course.” 

“In time to have it cooked for the next course? ” 
said Alice. “ Well, that was quick work, certainly ! ” 

“Well, not the next course,” the Knight said in 
a slow thoughtful tone: “no, certainly not the next 
course.” 

“ Then it would have to be the next day. I sup- 
pose you wouldn’t have two pudding-courses in one 
dinner? ” 

“Well, not the next day,” the Knight repeated 
as before: “not the next day. In fact,” he went 
on, holding his head down, and his voice getting 
lower and lower, “I don’t believe that pudding ever 
was cooked! In fact, I don’t believe that pudding 
ever will be cooked 1 And yet it was a very clever 
pudding to invent.” 

“What did you mean it to be made of?” Alice 
asked, hoping to cheer him up, for the poor Knight 
.seemed quite low-spirited about it. 

“It began with blotting-paper,” the Knight an- 
swered with a groan. 

“That wouldn’t be very nice, I’m afraid — ” 

“Not very nice alone,” he interrupted, quite 
eagerly: “but you’ve no idea what a difference it 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 153 


makes, mixing it with other things — such as gun- 
powder and sealing-wax. And here I must leave 
you.” They had just come to the end of the 
wood. 

Alice could only look puzzled : she was thinking 
of the pudding. 



‘‘You sad,” the Knight said in an anxious 
tone: “let me sing you a song to comfort you.” 

“Is it very long? ” Alice asked, for she had heard 
a good deal of poetry that day. 

“It’s long,” said the Knight, “but it’s very, very 


154 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


beautiful. Everybody that hears me sing it — either 
it brings the tears into their eyes, or else — ” 

“Or else what?” said Alice, for the Knight had 
made a sudden pause. 

“Or else it doesn’t, you know. The name of the 
song is called ‘ Haddocks’ Eyes.’ ” 

“Oh, that’s the name of the song, is it?” Alice 
said, trying to feel interested. 

“No, you don’t understand,” the Knight said, 
looking a little vexed. “ That’s what the name is 
called. The name really is ‘ The Aged Aged Man. ’ ” 
“Then I ought to have said, ‘That’s what the 
song is called ’ ? ” Alice corrected herself. 

“No, you oughtn’t: that’s quite another thing! 
The song is called ‘ Ways and Means’: but that’s 
only what it’s called, you know ! ” 

“ Well, what is the song, then? ” said Alice, who 
was by this time completely bewildered. 

“I was coming to that,” the Knight said. “The 
song really is ‘ A-sitting On a Gate ’ : and the tune’s 
my own invention.” 

So saying, he stopped his horse and let the reins 
fall on its neck: then, slowly beating time with one 
hand, and with a faint smile lighting up his gentle 
foolish face, as if he enjoyed the music of his song, 
he began. 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 155 


Of all the strange things that Alice saw in her 
journey Through The Looking-Glass, this was the 
one that she always remembered most clearly. 
Years afterwards she could bring the whole scene 
back again, as if it had been only yesterday — the 
mild blue eyes and kindly smile of the Knight — the 
setting sun gleaming through his hair, and shining 
on his armor in a blaze of light that quite dazzled 
her — the horse quietly moving about, with the 
reins hanging loose on his neck, cropping the grass 
at her feet — and the black shadows of the forest 
behind — all this she took in like a picture, as, 
with one hand shading her eyes, she leant against 
a tree, watching the strange pair, and listening, 
in a half dream, to the melancholy music of the 
song. 

“But the tune isn’t his own invention,” she said 
to herself: “it’s ‘ I give thee all, I can no more.’ ” 
She stood and listened very attentively, but no tears 
came into her eyes. 

“ril tell thee everything I can; 

There’s little to relate. 

I saw an aged aged man, 

A-sitting on a gate. 

‘ Who are you, aged man?’ I said. 

‘ And how is it you live? ’ 


156 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


And his answer trickled through my head 
Like water through a sieve. 

He said, ‘ I look for butterflies 
That sleep among the wheat ; 

I make them into mutton-pies, 

And sell them in the street. 

I sell them unto men,’ he said, 

‘ Who sail on stormy seas; 

And that’s the way I get my bread — 

A trifle, if you please.’ 

But I was thinking of a plan 
To dye one’s whiskers green. 

And always use so large a fan 
That they could not be seen. 

So, having no reply to give 
To what the old man said, 

I cried, ‘ Come, tell me how you live ! ’ 
And thumped him on the head. 

“ His accents mild took up the tale : 

He said, ‘ I go my ways. 

And when I find a mountain-rill, 

I set it in a blaze ; 

And thence they make a stuff they call 
Kowlands’ Macassar Oil — 

Yet twopence-half penny is all 
They give me for my toil.’ 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 157 


But I was thinking of a way 
To feed oneself on batter, 

And so go on from day to day 
Getting a little fatter. 

I shook him well from side to side, 



Until his face was blue: 

‘ Come, tell me how you live,^ I cried, 
‘And what it is you do! ^ 

“ He said, ‘ I hunt for haddocks’ eyes 
Among the heather bright. 


158 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


“ ‘ And work them into waistcoat-buttons 
In the silent night. 

And these I do not sell for gold 
Or coin of silvery shine, 

But for a copper halfpenny, 

And that will purchase nine. 

‘ I sometimes dig for buttered rolls. 

Or set limed twigs for crabs ; 

I sometimes search the grassy knolls 
For wheels of Hansom-cabs. 

And that’s the way ’ (he gave a wink) 

‘ By which I get my wealth — 

And very gladly will I drink 
Your Honor’s noble health.’ 

heard him then, for I had just 
Completed my design 
To keep the Menai bridge from rust 
By boiling it in wine, 

I thanked him much for telling me 
The way he got his wealth, 

But chiefly for his wish that he 
Might drink my noble health. 

“ And now, if e’er by chance I put 
My fingers into glue. 

Or madly squeeze a right-hand foot 
Into a left-hand shoe. 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


159 


Or if I drop upon my toe 
A very heavy weight, 

I weep, for it reminds me so 
Of that old man I used to know — 

Whose look was mild, whose speech was slow. 
Whose hair was whiter than the snow. 

Whose face was very like a crow. 

With eyes, like cinders, all aglow. 

Who seemed distracted with his woe. 

Who rocked his body to and fro. 

And muttered mumblingly and low. 

As if his mouth were full of dough. 

Who snorted like a buffalo — 

That summer evening, long ago, 

A-sitting on a gate.” 

As the Knight sang the last words of the ballad, he 
gathered up the reins, and turned his horse’s head 
along the road by which they had come. “You’ve 
only a few yards to go,” he said, “down the hill and 
over that little brook, and then you’ll be a Queen — 
But you’ll stay and see me off first? ” he added as 
Alice turned with an eager look in the direction to 
which he pointed. “ I sha’n’t be long. You’ll wait 
and wave your handkerchief when I get to that turn 
in the road? I think it’ll encourage me, you see.” 

“ Of course I’ll wait, ” said Alice : “ and thank you 


160 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


very much for coming so far — and for the song — I 
liked it very much.” 

“I hope so,” the Knight said doubtfully: ‘‘but 
you didn’t cry so much as I thought you would.” 

So they shook hands, and then the Knight rode 
slowly away into the forest. “It won’t take long 
to see him off, I expect,” Alice said to herself, as 
she stood watching him. “ There he goes ! Eight 
on his head, as usual ! However, he gets on again 
pretty easily — that comes of having so many things 
hung round the horse — ” So she went on talking 
to herself, as she watched the horse walking lei- 
surely along the road, and the Knight tumbling off, 
first on one side and then on the other. After the 
fourth or fifth tumble he reached the turn, and then 
she waved her handkerchief to him, and waited till 
he was out of sight. 

“I hope it encouraged him,” she said, as she 
turned to run down the hill : “ and now for the last 
brook, and to be a Queen! How grand it sounds! ” 
A very few steps brought her to the edge of the 
brook. “ The Eighth Square at last ! ” she cried as 
she bounded across, 

***** 

* * * * 

* * * * * 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 161 


and threw herself down to rest on a lawn as soft as 
moss, with little flower-beds dotted about it here 
and there. “ Oh, how glad I am to get here ! And 



what is this on my head? ’’ she exclaimed in a tone 
of dismay, as she put her hands up to something 
very heavy, that fitted tight all round her head. 

11 


162 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


“But bow can it have got there without my 
knowing it? ” she said to herself, as she lifted it off, 
and set it on her lap to make out what it could pos- 
sibly be. 

It was a golden crown. 


CHAPTER IX. 

QUEEN ALICE. 

“ Well, this is grand ! ” said Alice. I never ex- 
pected I should be a Queen so soon — and ITl tell you 
what it is, your Majesty,” she went on in a severe 
tone (she was always rather fond of scolding her- 
self), “it’ll never do for you to be lolling about on 
the grass like that ! Queens have to be dignified, 
you know ! ” 

So she got up and walked about — rather stiffly 
just at first, as she was afraid that the crown might 
come off: but she comforted herself with the 
thought that there was nobody to see her, “and if 
I really am a Queen,” she said as she sat down 
again, “I shall be able to manage it quite well in 
time.” 

Everything was happening so oddly that she 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 163 


didn’t feel a bit surprised at finding the Eed Queen 
and the White Queen sitting close to her, one on 
each side : she would have liked very much to ask 
them how they came there, but she feared it would 
not be quite civil. However, there would be no 
harm, she thought, in asking if the game was over. 
“Please, would you tell me — ” she began, looking 
timidly at the Eed Queen. 

“Speak when you’re spoken to!” the Queen 
sharply interrupted her. 

“But if everybody obeyed that rule,’* said Alice, 
who was always ready for a little argument, “and 
if you only spoke when you were spoken to, and the 
other person always waited for you to begin, you 
see nobody would every say anything, so that — ” 

“ Eidiculous I ” cried the Queen. “Why, don’t 
you see, child — ” here she broke off with a frown, 
and, after thinking for a minute, suddenly changed 
the subject of the conversation. “What do you 
mean by ‘ If you really are a Queen ’ ? ” What right 
have you to call yourself so? You can’t be a Queen, 
you know, till 3’ou’ve passed the proper examina- 
tion. And the sooner we begin it, the better.” 

“ I only said ‘ if ’ 1 ” poor Alice pleaded in a piteous 
tone. 

The two Queens looked at each other, and the 


164 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


Eed Queen remarked, with a little shudder, ‘‘She 
says she only said ‘ if ’ — ’’ 

“But she said a great deal more than that! ” the 
White Queen moaned, wringing her hands. “Oh, 
ever so much more than that I ” 

“So you did, you know,” the Eed Queen said to 
Alice. “Always speak the truth — think before you 
speak — and write it down afterwards.” 

“I’m sure I didn’t mean — ” Alice was beginning, 
but the Eed Queen interrupted her impatiently. 

“That’s just what I complain of! You should 
have meant ! What do you suppose is the use of a 
child without any meaning? Even a joke should 
have some meaning — and a child’s more important 
than a joke, I hope. You couldn’t deny that, even 
if you tried with both hands.” 

“I don’t deny things with my hands,” Alice ob- 
jected. 

“Nobody said you did,” said the Eed Queen. “I 
said you couldn’t if you tried.” 

“She’s in that state of mind,” said the White 
Queen, “that she wants to deny something — only 
she doesn’t know what to deny! ” 

“A nasty, vicious temper,” the Eed Queen re- 
marked; and then there was an uncomfortable 
silence for a minute or two. 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 165 


The Eed Queen broke the silence by saying to the 
White Queen, “I invite you to Alice’s dinner-party 
this afternoon.” 

The White Queen smiled feebly, and said, “And 
I invite you.” 

“ I didn’t know I was to have a party at all,” said 
Alice ; “ but if there is to be one, I think I ought to 
invite the guests.” 

“We gave you the opportunity of doing it,” the 
Eed Queen remarked: “but I daresay you’ve not 
had many lessons in manners yet? ” 

“Manners are not taught in lessons,” said Alice. 
“Lessons teach you to do sums, and things of that 
sort.” 

“ Can you do Addition? ” the White Queen asked. 
“ What’s one and one and one and one and one and 
one and one and one and one and one? ” 

“I don’t know,” said Alice. “I lost count.” 

“She can’t do Addition,” the Eed Queen inter- 
rupted. “Can you do Subtraction? Take nine 
from eight.” 

“Nine from eight I can’t, you know,” Alice re- 
plied very readily: “but — ” 

“ She can ’t do Subtraction, ” said the White Queen. 
“Can you do Division? Divide a loaf by a knife — 
what’s the answer to that?” 


166 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


“1 suppose — ” Alice was beginning, but the Eed 
Queen answered for her. “Bread-and-butter, of 
course. Try another Subtraction sum. Take a 
bone from a dog: what remains?” 

Alice considered. “The bone wouldn’t remain, 
of course, if I took it — and the dog wouldn’t re- 
main; it would come to bite me — and I’m sure I 
shouldn’t remain ! ” 

“Then you think nothing would remain?” said 
the Eed Queen. 

“I think that’s the answer.” 

“Wrong, as usual,” said the Eed Queen; “the 
dog’s temper would remain.” 

“But I don’t see how — ” 

“ Why, look here! ” the Eed Queen cried. “The 
dog would lose its temper, wouldn’t it? ” 

“Perhaps it would,” Alice replied cautiously. 

“ Then if the dog went away, its temper would 
remain! ” the Queen exclaimed triumphantly. 

Alice said, as gravely as she could, “They might 
go different ways.” But she couldn’t help think- 
ing to herself, “ What dreadful nonsense we are 
talking! ” 

“She can’t do sums a bit!” the Queens said to- 
gether, with great emphasis. 

“ Can you do sums? ” Alice said, turning suddenly 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 167 

on the White Queen, for she didn’t like being found 
fault with so much. 

The Queen gasped and shut her eyes. “I can do 
Addition,” she said, if you give me time — but I 
can’t do Subtraction under any circumstances! ” 

“ Of course you know your ABC?” said the Eed 
Queen. 

“To be sure I do,” said Alice. 

“So do I,” the White Queen whispered: “we’ll 
often say it over together, dear. And I’ll tell you 
a secret — I can read words of one letter I Isn’t that 
grand? However, don’t be discouraged. You’ll 
come to it in time.” 

Here the Eed Queen began again. “Can you 
answer useful questions? ” she said. “ How is bread 
made? ” 

“I know that! ” Alice cried eagerly. “You take 
some flour — ” 

“Where do you pick the flower?” the White 
Queen asked. “In a garden, or in the hedges?” 

“Well, it isn’t picked at all,” Alice explained: 
“it’s ground — ” 

“How many acres of ground? ’’said the White 
Queen. You mustn’t leave out so many things.” 

“ Fan her head ! ” the Eed Queen anxiously inter- 
rupted. “She’ll be feverish after so much think- 


168 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


ing.” So they set to work and fanned her with 
bunches of leaves, till she had to beg them to leave 
off, it blew her hair about so. 

“She’s all right again now,” said the Red Queen. 

“Do you know languages? What’s the French 
for fiddle-de-dee? ” 

“Fiddle-de-dee’s not English,” Alice replied 
gravely. 

“ Who ever said it was? ” said the Red Queen. 

Alice thought she saw a way out of the difiSculty 
this time. “ If you’ll tell me what language ‘ fiddle- 
de-dee ’ is. I’ll tell you the French for it! ” she ex- 
claimed triumphantly. 

But the Red Queen drew herself up rather stiffly, 
and said, “Queens never make bargains.” 

“I wish Queens never asked questions,” Alice 
thought to herself. 

“Don’t let us quarrel,” the White Queen said in 
an anxious tone. “ What is the cause of lightning ? ” 

“The cause of lightning,” Alice said very de- 
cidedly, for she felt quite certain about this, “ is the 
thunder — no, no ! ” she hastily corrected herself. 
“I meant the other way.” 

“It’s too late to correct it,” said the Red Queen: 
“when you’ve once said a thing, that fixes it, and 
you must take the consequences.” 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 169 


“ Which reminds me — ” the White Queen said, 
looking down and nervously clasping and unclasp- 
ing her hands, ‘‘we had such a thunder-storm last 
Tuesday — I mean one of the last set of Tuesdays, 
you know.” 



Alice was puzzled. “In our country,” she re- 
marked, “there’s only one day at a time.” 

The Ked Queen said: “That’s a poor thin way 
of doing things. Now here, we mostly have days 
and nights two or three at a time, and sometimes 


170 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


in the winter we take as many as five nights to- 
gether — for warmth, you know.” 

‘‘Are five nights warmer than one night, then? ” 
Alice ventured to ask. 

“Five times as warm, of course.” 

“But they should be five times as cold, by the 
same rule — ” 

“Just so ! ” cried the Red Queen. “ Five times as 
warm, and five times as cold — just as I’m five times 
as rich as you are, and five times as clever! ” 

Alice sighed and gave it up. “ It’s exactly like a 
riddle with no answer 1 ” she thought. 

“Humpty Dumpty saw it too,” the White Queen 
went on in a low voice, more as if she were talking 
to herself. “ He came to the door with a corkscrew 
in his hand — ” 

“ What did he want? ” said the Red Queen. 

“He said he would come in,” the White Queen 
went on, “because he was looking for a hippopot- 
amus. Now, as it happened, there wasn’t such a 
thing in the house, that morning.” 

“ Is there generally? ” Alice asked in an astonished 
tone. 

“Well, only on Thursdays,” said the Queen. 

“I know what he came for,” said Alice: “he 
wanted to punish the fish, because — ” 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 171 


Here the White Queen began again. “It was 
such a thunder-storm, you can’t think!” (“She 
never could, you know,” said the Eed Queen.) 
“And part of the roof came off, and ever so much 
thunder got in — and it went rolling round the room 
in great lumps — and knocking over the tables and 
things — till I was so frightened, I couldn’t remem- 
ber my own name! ” 

Alice thought to herself ; “ I never should try to 
remember my name in the middle of an accident ! 
Where would be the use of it?” but she did not 
say this aloud, for fear of hurting the poor Queen’s 
feelings. 

“Your Majesty must excuse her,” the Eed Queen 
said to Alice, taking one of the White Queen’s hands 
in her own, and gently stroking it: “she means 
well, but she can’t help saying foolish things, as a 
general rule.” 

The White Queen looked timidly at Alice, who 
felt she ought to say something kind, but really 
couldn’t think of anything at the moment. 

“She never was really well brought up,” the Eed 
Queen went on: “but it’s amazing how good-tem- 
pered she is! Pat her on the head, and see how 
pleased she’ll be!” But this was more than Alice 
had courage to do. 


172 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


“A little kindness — and putting her hair in pa- 
pers — would do wonders with her — ” 

The White Queen gave a deep sigh, and laid her 
head on Alice’s shoulder. “I am so sleepy? ’’she 
moaned. 

“She’s tired, poor thing!” said the Eed Queen. 
“Smooth her hair — lend her your nightcap — and 
sing her a soothing lullaby.” 

“I haven’t got a nightcap with me,” said Alice, 
as she tried to obey the first direction : “ and I don’t 
know any soothing lullabies.” 

“I must do it myself, then,” said the Bed Queen, 
and she began : 

“Hush-a-by lady, in Alice’s lap! 

Till the feast’ s ready, we’ ve time for a nap : 

When the feast’s over, we’ll go to the ball — 

Red Queen, and White Queen, and Alice, and all ! ” 

“And now you know the words,” she added, as 
she put her head down on Alice’s other shoulder, 
“just sing it through to me. I’m getting sleepy 
too.” In another moment both Queens were fast 
asleep, and snoring loud. 

“ What am I to do? ” exclaimed Alice, looking 
about in great perplexity, as first one round head, 
and then the other, rolled down from her shoulder, 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 173 


and lay like a heavy lump in her lap. “I don’t 
think it ever happened before, that any one had to 
take care of two Queens asleep at once! No, not in 
all the History of England — it couldn’t, you know, 



because there never was more than one Queen at a 
time. Do wake up, you heavy things!” she went 
on in an impatient tone ; but there was no answer 
but a gentle snoring. 

The snoring got more distinct every minute, and 
sounded more like a tune : at last she could even 


174 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


make out words, and she listened so eagerly tli»c, 
when the two great heads suddenly vanished from 
her lap, she hardly missed them. 

She was standing before an arched doorway over 
which were the words QUEEN ALICE in large let- 
ters, and on each side of the arch there was a belL 
handle; one was marked “Visitors’ Bell,” and the 
other “Servants’ Bell.” 

“I’ll wait till the song’s over,” thought Alice, 
“and then I’ll ring the — the — which bell must I 
ring? ” she went on, very much puzzled by the 
names. “I’m not a visitor, and I’m not a ser- 
vant. There ought to be one marked ‘ Queen,’ you 
know — ” 

Just then the door opened a little way, and a crea- 
ture with a long beak put its head out for a moment 
and said, “ No admittance till the week after next ! ” 
and shut the door again with a bang. 

Alice knocked and rang in vain for a long time, 
but at last a very old Frog, who was sitting under 
a tree, got up and hobbled slowly towards her : he 
was dressed in bright yellow, and had enormous 
boots on. 

“ What is it, now? ” the Frog said in a deep hoarse 
whisper. 

Alice turned round, ready to find fault with any- 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 175 


body. “ Where’s the servant whose business it is to 
answer the door? ” she began angrily. 

“ Which door? ” said the Frog. 

Alice almost stamped with irritation at the slow 
drawl in which he spoke. “ This door, of course ! ” 

The Frog looked at the door with his large dull 
eyes for a minute : then he went nearer and rubbed 
it with his thumb, as if he were trying whether 
the paint would come off; then he looked at 
Alice, 

“ To answer the door? ” he said. “ What’s it been 
asking of?” He was so hoarse that Alice could 
scarcely hear him. 

“I don’t know what you mean,” she said. 

“I speaks English, doesn’t I? ” the Frog went on. 
‘‘Or are you deaf? What did it ask you? ” 

“Nothing! ” Alice said impatiently. “I’ve been 
knocking at it I ” 

“Shouldn’t do that — shouldn’t do that — ” the 
Frog muttered. “ Wexes it, you know.” Then he 
went up and gave the door a kick with one of his 
great feet. “You let it alone,” he panted out, as 
he hobbled back to his tree, “and it’ll let you alone, 
you know.” 

At this moment the door was flung open, and a 
shrill voice was heard singing: 


176 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


To the Looking-Glass world it was Alice that said, 

‘ Vve a sceptre in hand, I’ve a crown on my head; 

Let the Looking-Glass creatures, whatever they be. 
Come and dine with the Red Queen, the White Queen, 
and me ! ’ ” 


And hundreds of voices joined in the chorus : 

“ Then fill up the glasses as quick as you can. 

And sprinkle the table with buttons and bran : 

Put cats in the coffee, and mice in the tea — 

And welcome Queen Alice with thirty-times-three ! ” 

Then followed a confused noise of cheering, and 
Alice thought to herself: “Thirty times three 
makes ninety. I wonder if any one’s counting?” 
In a minute there was silence again, and the same 
shrill voice sang another verse: 

“ ‘ 0 Looking-Glass creatures, ’ quoth Alice, ‘ draw near ! 
’Tis an honor to see me, a favor to hear: 

’Tis a privilege high to have dinner and tea 

Along with the Red Queen, the White Queen, and me ! ’ ” 

Then came the chorus again : 

Then fill up the glasses with treacle and ink. 

Or anything else that is pleasant to drink ; 

Mix sand with the cider, and wool with the wine — 
And welcome Queen Alice with ninety-times-nine ! ” 



178 THEOUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


“Ninety times nine!” Alice repeated in despair. 
“Oh, that’ll never be done! I’d better go in at 
once — ” and in she went, and there was a dead 
silence the moment she appeared. 

Alice glanced nervously along the table, as she 
walked up the large hall, and noticed that there 
were about fifty guests, of all kinds: some were 
animals, some birds, and there were even a few 
flowers among them. “I’m glad they’ve come 
without waiting to be asked,” she thought: “I 
should never have known who were the right people 
to invite ! ” 

There were three chairs at the head of the table ; 
the Red and White Queens had already taken two 
of them, but the middle one was empty. Alice sat 
down in it, rather uncomfortable at the silence, and 
longing for some one to speak. 

At last the Red Queen began. “You’ve missed 
the soup and fish,” she said. “Put on the joint! ” 
And the waiters set a leg of mutton before Alice, 
who looked at it rather anxiously, as she had never 
had to carve a joint before. 

“You look a little shy; let me introduce you to 
that leg of mutton,” said the Red Queen: “Alice — 
Mutton; Mutton — Alice.” The leg of mutton got 
up in the dish and made a little bow to Alice ; and 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 179 


Alice returned the bow, not knowing whether to be 
frightened or amused. 

“ May I give you a slice? ” she said, taking up the 
knife and fork, and looking from one Queen to the 
other. 

“Certainly not,” the Red Queen said, very de- 
cidedly: “it isn’t etiquette to cut anyone you’ve 
been introduced to. Remove the joint! ” And the 
waiters carried it off, and brought a large plum- 
pudding in its place. 

“I won’t be introduced to the pudding, please,” 
Alice said rather hastily, “or we shall get no din- 
ner at all. May I give you some? ” 

But the Red Queen looked sulky, and growled, 
“Pudding — Alice; Alice — Pudding. Remove the 
pudding 1 ” and the waiters took it away so quickly 
that Alice couldn’t return its bow. 

However, she didn’t see why the Red Queen 
should be the only one to give orders, so as an ex- 
periment, she called out, “ Waiter! Bring back the 
pudding ! ” and there it was again in a moment, like 
a conjuring-trick. It was so large that she couldn’t 
help feeling a little shy with it, as she had been with 
the mutton ; however, she conquered her shyness by 
a great effort, and cut a slice and handed it to the 
Red Queen. 


180 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


“What impertinence!^’ said the Pudding. “I 
wonder how you’d like it, if I were to cut a slice 
out of you, you creature ! ” 

It spoke in a thick, suety sort of voice, and Alice 
laadn’t a word to say in reply : she could only sit 
and look at it and gasp. 

“Make a remark,” said the Red Queen: “It’s 
ridiculous to leave all the conversation to the pud- 
ding! ” 

“Do you know, I’ve had such a quantity of po- 
etry repeated to me to-day,” Alice began, a little 
frightened at finding that, the moment she opened 
her lips, there was dead silence, and all eyes were 
fixed upon her; “and it’s a very curious thing, I 
think — every poem was about fishes in some way. 
Do you know why they’re so fond of fishes, all 
about here? ” 

She spoke to the Red Queen, whose answer was a 
little wide of the mark. “As to fishes,” she said, 
very slowly and solemnly, putting her mouth close 
to Alice’s ear, “her White Majesty knows a lovely 
riddle — all in poetry — all about fishes. Shall she 
repeat it?” 

“Her Red Majesty’s very kind to mention it,” 
the White Queen murmured into Alice’s other ear. 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 181 


in a voice like the cooing of a pigeon. “It would 
be such a treat ! May I? ” 

“Please do,” Alice said very politely. 



The White Queen laughed with delight, and 
stroked Alice’s cheek. Then she began: 

“ ‘ Pirst, the fish must be caught.’ 

That is easy ; a baby, I think, could have caught it. 


182 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, 


Next, tlie fish must be bought.’ 

That is easy : a penny, I think, would have bought it. 

‘“Now cook me the fish ! ’ 

That is easy, and will not take more than a minute. 

‘ Let it lie in a dish ! ’ 

That is easy, because it already is in it. 

“ ‘ Bring it here ! Let me sup ! ’ 

It is easy to set such a dish on the table. 

‘ Take the dish-cover up ! ’ 

Ah, that is so hard that I fear I’ m unable ! 

“ For it holds it like glue — 

Holds the lid to the dish, while it lies in the middle : 

Which is easiest to do, 

TJn-dish-cover the fish, or dishcover the riddle? ” 

“Take a minute to think about it, and then 
guess,” said the Eed Queen. “Meanwhile weTl 
drink your health — Queen Alice’s health ! ” she 
screamed at the top of her voice, and all the guests 
began drinking it directly, and very queerly they 
managed it: some of them put their glasses upon 
their heads like extinguishers, and drank all that 
trickled down their faces — others upset the decan- 
ters, and drank the wine as it ran off the edges of 
the table — and three of them (who looked like kan- 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 183 


garoos) scrambled into the dish of roast mutton, and 
began eagerly lapping up the gravy, ‘‘just like pigs 
in a trough ! ” thought Alice. 

“You ought to return thanks in a neat speech,” 
the Eed Queen said, frowning at Alice as she spoke. 

“We must support you, you know,” the White 
Queen whispered, as Alice got up to do it, very obe- 
diently, but a little frightened. 

“Thank you very much,” she whispered in reply, 
“but I can do quite well without.” 

“That wouldn’t be at all the thing,” the Eed 
Queen said very decidedl}" : so Alice tried to submit 
to it with a good grace. 

(“And they did push so!” she said afterwards, 
when she was telling her sister the history of the 
feast. “You would have thought they wanted to 
squeeze me flat ! ”) 

In fact it was rather difficult for her to keep in 
her place while she made her speech : the two Queens 
pushed her so, one on each side, that they nearly 
lifted her up into the air: “I rise to return 
thanks — ” Alice began : and she really did rise as 
she spoke, several inches; but she got hold of the 
edge of the table, and managed to pull herself down 
again. 

“Take care of yourself!” screamed the White 


184 TEBOUGE TEE LOOKING-GLASS. 


Queen, seizing Alice’s hair with both her hands. 
“Something’s going to happen ! ” 

And then (as Alice afterwards described it) all 
sorts of things happened in a moment. The candles 
all grew up to the ceiling, looking something like a 
bed of rushes with fireworks at the top. As to the 
bottles, they each took a pair of plates, which they 
hastily fitted on as wings, and so, with forks for 
legs, went fluttering about in all directions : “ and 
very like birds they look,” Alice thought to herself, 
as well as she could in the dreadful confusion that 
was beginning. 

At this moment she heard a hoarse laugh at her 
side, and turned to see what was the matter with 
the White Queen ; but, instead of the Queen, there 
was the leg of mutton sitting in the chair. “ Here 
I am ! ” cried a voice from the soup-tureen, and 
Alice turned again, just in time to see the Queen’s 
broad good-natured face grinning at her for a mo- 
ment over the edge of the tureen, before she disap- 
peared into the soup. 

There was not a moment to be lost. Already 
several of the guests were lying down in the dishes, 
and the soup-ladle was walking up the table towards 
Alice’s chair, and beckoning to her impatiently to 
get out of its way. 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 185 



‘‘I can’t stand this 
any longer!” she cried 
as she jumped up and 
seized the tahle-cloth 
with both hands: one 
good pull, and plates, 
dishes, guests, and can- 
dles came crashing 
down together in a 
heap on the floor. 

“And as for you,” 


186 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


she went on, turning fiercely upon the Eed Queenj 
whom she considered as the cause of all the mis- 
chief — but the Queen was no longer at her side — 
she had suddenly dwindled down to the size of a 
little doll, and was now on the table, merrily run- 
ning round and round after her own shawl, which 
was trailing behind her. 

At any other time, Alice would have felt surprised 
at this, but she was far too much excited to be sur- 
prised at anything now. “As for you,’’ she re- 
peated, catching hold of the little creature in the 
very act of jumping over a bottle which had just 
lighted upon the table, “I’ll shake you into a kit- 
ten, that I will ! ” 


CHAPTER X. 

SHAKING. 

She took her off the table as she spoke; and shook 
her backwards and forwards with all her might. 

The Red Queen made no resistance whatever; 
only her face grew very small, and her eyes got 
large and green : and still, as Alice went on shaking 
her, she kept on growing shorter — and fatter — and 
softer — and rounder — and — 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 187 


CHAPTER XL 

WAKING. 

— and it really was a kitten, after all. 


CHAPTER XII. 

WHICH DREAMED IT? 

‘'Your Red Majesty shouldn’t purr so loud,” 
Alice said, rubbing her eyes, and addressing the 
kitten respectfully, yet with some severity. “You 
woke me out of, oh ! such a nice dream ! And 
you’ve been along with me, Kitty — all through the 
Looking-Glass world. Did you know it, dear? ” 

It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens (Alice 
had once made the remark) that, whatever you say 
to them, they always purr. “If they would only 
purr for ‘ yes, ’ and mew for ‘ no, ’ or any rule of 
that sort,” she had said, “so that one could keep up 
a conservation ! But how can you talk with a per- 
son if they always say the same thing? ” 

On this occasion the kitten only purred : and it 


188 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


was impossible to guess whether it meant “yes^’ or 
‘‘no.” 

So Alice hunted among the chessmen on the table 



till she had found the Eed Queen : then she went 
down on her knees on the hearth-rug, and put the 
kitten and the Queen to look at each other. “ Now, 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 189 


Kitty ! ” she cried, clapping her hands triumphantly. 
“Confess that was what you turned into! ” 

(“But it wouldn’t look at it,” she said, when she 



was explaining the thing afterwards to her sister : 
“it turned away its head, and pretended not to see 
it: but it looked a little ashamed of itself, so 1 think 
it must have been the Eed Queen.”) 


190 THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


“ Sit up a little more stiffly, dear ! ” Alice cried 
with a merry laugh. “And curtsey while you’re 
thinking what to — what to purr. It saves time, 
remember! ” And she caught it up and gave it one 
little kiss, “just in honor of its having been a Eed 
Queen.” 

“Snowdrop, my pet! ” she went on, looking over 
her shoulder at the White Kitten, which was still 
patiently undergoing its toilet, “ when will Dinah 
have finished with your White Majesty, I wonder? 
That must be the reason you were so untidy in my 
dream. — Dinah! Do you know that you’re scrub- 
bing a White Queen? Eeally, it’s most disrespect- 
ful of you ! 

“And what did Dinah turn to, I wonder?” she 
prattled on, as she settled comfortably down, with 
one elbow on the rug, and her chin in her hand, to 
watch the kittens. “Tell me, Dinah, did you turn 
to Humpty Dumpty? I think you did — however, 
you’d better not mention it to yCur friends just yet, 
for I’m not sure. 

“By the way, Kitty, if only you’d been really 
with me in my dream, there was one thing you 
would have enjoyed — I had such a quantity of po- 
etry said to me, all about fishes ! To-morrow morn- 
ing you shall have a real treat. All the time you’re 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 191 


eating your breakfast, I’ll repeat ‘ The Walrus and 
the Carpenter ’ to you; and then you can make be- 
lieve it’s oysters, dear! 

“Now, Kitty, let’s consider who it was that 
dreamed it all. This is a serious question, my dear, 
and you should not go on licking your paw like that 
— as if Dinah hadn’t washed you this morning! 
You see, Kitty, it must have been either me or the 
Eed King. He was part of my dream, of course — 
but then I was part of his dream, too! Was it the 
Eed King, Kitty? You were his wife, my dear, so 
you ought to know — Oh, Kitty, do help to settle it! 
I’m sure your paw can wait! ” But the provoking 
kitten only began on the other paw, and pretended 
it hadn’t heard the question. 

Which do you think it was? 


192 


THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS. 


A boat, beneath a sunny sky, 
Lingering onward dreamily 
In an evening of July — 

Children three that nestle near. 
Eager eye and willing ear. 

Pleased a simple tale to hear — 

Long has paled that sunny sky : 
Echoes fade and memories die : 
Autumn frosts have slain July. 

Still she haunts me, phantomwise, 
Alice moving under skies 
Never seen by waking eyes. 

Children yet, the tale to hear. 
Eager eye and willing ear. 
Lovingly shall nestle near. 

In a Wonderland they lie, 
Dreaming as the days go by. 
Dreaming as the summers die. 

Ever drifting down the stream — 
Lingering in the golden gleam- 
Life, what is it but a dream? 


THE END. 










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